Mondler: Familiar Faces Trilogy 1
by christacox13
Summary: Part of the Familiar Faces companion trilogy. Can be read on its own, or with the other two books. Details Chandler & Monica's life in 2018, including new and old characters from the original series. All rights for characters or places where applicable go to David Crane and Marta Kauffman, not me. Modern day AU. Characters portrayed by the original actors/actresses. Please review.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This is a new story that I have randomly come up with the idea for, but it is going to be a modern day AU Mondler set in 2018, when Jack and Erica are teenagers. It will basically be about their life, and that is all I know for the direction at this point. Assume that the characters are played by Matthew Perry and Courteney Cox etc., as I won't be stating this throughout the story as I had been doing to doubly make sure that I don't breach any Copyright or privacy regulations as I have unintentionally been doing before which I am so, so sorry about.

I also want to mention that this story will be part of a companion trilogy of books told from the perspectives of the three main endgame ships: Phike, Mondler and Roschel. They will be written simultaneously, and this is the first. Keep an eye out for the other two!

Please also review as this helps me to stay accountable with updating, and also allows me to engage with my readers.

On to the story:

Chapter 1 – Monica

"Are you sure that you both have everything you need for high school?" I ask Jack and Erica, as they are eating their breakfast.

"Mom," Jack says, "You made us check twice last night, and once this morning already. I think we're both going to be fine!"

I looked over at Chandler for support so he would make me sound less overprotective, but he continued to sip coffee and read his newspaper as if he wasn't sitting there. It did annoy me that he seemed completely oblivious to the fact that his son and daughter were starting high school, but I know that in reality that he most likely thinks that I am making a unnecessarily big deal out of it.

"Have you guys got your schedules yet?" I ask the twins.

Jack answers again. "We know the subjects, but we won't get our schedules until we are at school."

"That's really inconvenient for curious parents," I say.

"It's also so overprotective parents can't worry about their children to the point where they would have no freedom," Jack says, and I know that he directed that comment right at me.

"I'm not overprotective! And I wouldn't worry about you guys that much!" I say, indignantly. "I just don't want either of you to get into trouble."

Erica and Jack both finish their breakfast, and go upstairs to finish getting ready for school. I move to sit near Chandler.

"Bing," I say, and Chandler looks up.

"Yes, Geller?" he says, putting down his coffee mug and newspaper.

"Our babies are going off to high school," I say, feeling proud but sad at the same time.

"I've known that for about three days now," Chandler replies, "but yes, they are."

"Do you not feel even the slightest bit emotional about it?" I ask, sounding irritated.

"Geller," Chandler begins, "I am surprised you have to ask since you have been married to me for 17 years, and should know that I do not show emotions often."

I huffed a sigh. "Suit yourself." I start taking the plates from the twin's breakfast to the sink to wash up, but before I can start, I hear the twins walk down the stairs again.

"Don't think that you can leave without saying goodbye to me!" I shout, as I approach the staircase, and see Jack and Erica getting ready to walk out the door.

Jack rolls his eyes, but I know that he doesn't really mind. When I get closer to where he and Erica are, I hug him first. "We'll be fine," Jack says, "and I'll look after Erica for you, Mom." I smile, and thank him.

I move to Erica afterwards. I hug her, and she whispers, "I'm so nervous, Mom." I tell her that she will be fine, and that Jack will look after her and make sure that she doesn't get in trouble. She thanks me, and I hug her tighter. We break apart after 10 seconds, and she follows Jack out of the door. I stand in the doorway, and wave them goodbye until they are out of sight.

I walk back through the hallway and into the kitchen, trying to stifle the tears that I can already feel welling up. Chandler is still sitting at the table, but when I enter he looks up from his coffee cup. "Are you okay, Mon?" he asks me.

"Yeah," I say, really trying and beginning to struggle to stifle the tears. I think that Chandler can tell.

"You can't lie to me, Geller!" He stands up and wraps his arms around my shoulders in a tight hug, and somehow his magic works and I start to feel much better. "I've known you for far too long."

I smile, but roll my eyes playfully. It's true that we have known each other far too long to be able to get away with lying, but sometimes it still annoys me. "You have work today, don't you?" I ask Chandler.

"Yeah," he replies, detaching his arms from me. "Do you have to work today or do you just have manager meetings and stuff?"

"Manager meetings," I say. "So I'm not that busy. Those days are good but they suck when I'm in the mood to be busy."

"Wow," Chandler says, sarcastically. "I wouldn't have guessed."

I flash him a classic Geller death stare, and he shuts up. I start the washing up again, hoping that it will be the distraction I am in desperate need of at the moment. Chandler goes back upstairs to finish getting ready before he has to leave, and I'm left alone in the kitchen.

After what feels like no time at all, I am done with doing the washing and putting it away. I sit down on the couch. A book that I recognise as mine sits on the glass-topped coffee table in front of the couch. A shopping receipt that had been serving the purpose as a bookmark fell out as I lifted the book up, but I didn't care as I usually would have because I didn't honestly remember reading the book in the first place. I opened the first page, and started reading.

"Mon," Chandler calls from the hallway. "I'm about to go!"

I leave my book on the coffee table, and walk down the hallway to Chandler. We hug for what feels like forever, but I really needed it and I think Chandler realised that. "Have a great day, babe," he says to me. "I know that it feels like twins won't be back for years, but I promise you that it will start getting easier."

I nod, and start to feel a little better even just because Chandler is saying it and I completely trust him. "Have a great day, too," I say back. "Knock 'em dead with your puns!" Chandler is still creative director at the advertising company he works at.

Chandler walks out of the door, after rolling his eyes playfully after my comment on his work. I check my phone, and see the reminder that I must have set for myself about today's meeting at Javu. It says that I have to be there for 10am, so I calculate that I have just over half an hour to be there on time.

I remember that, in my haste to get Chandler and the twins fed, I forgot to get changed out of pyjamas and my bathrobe. I rush straight to the bedroom, and get into my chef's whites. I tied my hair up in a sloppy bun, and then go to the bathroom and finish getting fully ready there.

I check my phone again, and I have about twenty minutes left. I can't take the car, I sigh, because Chandler had to take it himself. Regretfully, I resign to the fact that I'll have to catch the subway, and risk being late.

When I finally get on the subway on my way to work, I start to feel more relaxed again. I don't even need to call in to say that I might be a little late. I get to Javu with a few minutes to spare, and I go straight to the staff area behind the main counter. As I am hanging up my coat and putting my bag in my locker, the sous-chef Barry sees me and we start chatting for a bit.

"How was your weekend, Monica?" Barry asks.

"Pretty good," I say, turning the key in the lock on my locker. "Kinda stressful though, because the twins started high school today and I spent a lot longer than I expected to help them get ready. What about you?"

"That does sound stressful," Barry says, sympathetically. "It will be worth it though. My weekend was pretty good, me and the Mrs and went to a fancy restaurant the other day to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary because they were showing Love Actually."

I smile. "That sounds so sweet," I say, "and congratulations to you both."

Barry was one of the older members of staff here, but he was also one of the friendliest. I really, really hope that Chandler and I end having as strong, stable and loving a relationship as Barry and his wife do. My favourite stories that Barry shares are when they include his wife or their kids, who are fully grown up, but still make the effort to see their parents. I think I probably love them so much because I definitely want Jack and Erica to end up like them when Chandler and I are much older and need looking after.

I hate to interrupt Barry halfway through our conversation, but I know that I really have to be making my way to the meeting now. "Barry," I say, "I would love to talk more with you, but I have a management meeting now."

Barry is cool about it. "See ya then, Monica," he says, as I walk down the corridor right back to the secret meeting room.

I get there just as I see my other colleagues entering the room. When I walk through the door, I see that there is a tray with tea bags, a kettle, a miniature pitcher of milk and coffee strainer laid out, and a plate filled with cookies.

I take my seat next to the one of the two head chefs who isn't on shift right now and one of our waitresses, who is here to represent for all our waitresses that we employ.

"Hi, Monica," the head chef, Maria, says. "How was your weekend?"

"Good," I reply, helping myself to a cookie in the hope that no one is going to be bothered by it. "It was a little stressful, however, since the twins start high school today."

"Ooh exciting," Maria replies. "But don't worry about them – I'm sure that they will settle right in."

"I'm trying," I say. "They were just kind of a miracle for Chandler and I, so it's difficult to let them out of my care."

Maria nods in understanding. I realise that it's my turn to lead the meeting, and so I start talking, even though I am nervous and don't have any kind of speech that I practised or anything.

"So, fellow colleagues," I start, "I've called you guys here for a meeting for two reasons. The first is regarding the next health and safety inspection that is coming up that we need to start making plans for, especially since there will be no way that we know when it will happen until the day. The second is that I have been looking around at the design of the customer dining area specifically, and I think that we need to have a bit of an update. Everyone understand or got any questions before we continue?"

Everyone nods at me, and so I carry on. "Let's discuss the inspection first, then, to get the boring part out of the way. What are you guys going to do in preparation for it?"

Maria answers immediately. "I will carry out a risk assessment to make sure that the other chefs are up to date with what is required of them in terms of health and safety in the kitchen."

"Good," I say to Maria, and then continue to look around. "Anyone else got any other ideas?"

Brandy, the head of the waitressing team speaks up next. "I'll make sure that the waiters and waitresses are wearing appropriate clothing for their job, and that they are handling the food correctly and not being polite and friendly to our customers."

"Anyone else want come forward to the group?" I say, trying to encourage people to speak up. "If you don't want to, that's fine, but it means that you guys have my trust to make sure that you are all going to contribute something to make sure that our business continues to stand out. Enough on that, so do you guys have interior design ideas to modernise the diner areas?"

Brandy speaks up again. "I think that we should keep the rustic look, but perhaps update some of the posters so that they're more familiar with customers?"

"Interesting idea," I say, writing it down in the notepad that I had just remembered that I had packed in handbag last night. "Anyone else?"

One of the waitresses whose name I had forgotten started talking. "I think that we should buy couches and have more coffee table, for the people that don't want to sit and have a proper meal."

"That's a good idea," I say. "I really like it, and it will mean that the kind of customers that we are appealing to will become even greater. Any more suggestions?"

I looked round at my colleagues and no one answered, so I decided to wrap the meeting up. "All right then," I started to say, "that's the end of today's meeting. Thank you so much again for all your contributions, and I hope that you will share the information on the health and safety inspection with the rest of the staff that couldn't be part of this meeting. I'll also be taking suggestions for ideas for the décor if anyone wants to let me know whenever."

Everyone thanks me as they leave, and I pick up the tray that had the food and drink on, and walk out the room to the kitchen area. I leave the tray in the washing up area, and walk out to get my bag and coat and leave Javu to get back home. I'll probably make a stop to get coffee on my journey back, as I won't have anyone needing me to be back home immediately. I heave a sigh of relief, because I honestly haven't felt this free to do whatever I want in a long time.

A/N: That's a wrap on the first chapter! I hope that you like what I have done with the characters and plot, so make sure to leave your thoughts in the reviews! Once again, I would like to put emphasis on the fact that this story is entirely fictional, and all rights to any of the characters or places used in the book that are from the original story for Friends go to Marta Kauffman and David Crane. Please enjoy, and remember to keep an eye out for the other two books in the trilogy that will be appearing soon!


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: I am very excited to bring you guys the second chapter of Monica and Chandler's story! All the support that I am receiving for all three stories within this series is absolutely surreal, and I honestly don't know how to thank you. I am alternating whose perspective I am writing from, which I know will please the reviewer that wanted to hear from Chandler's POV. This will also apply to the other two books. Please also keep a look out for a book that I am writing that is a crossover between Cougar Town and Friends. Anyways, let's continue on with the next chapter.

Chapter 2 – Chandler

I sit in the car waiting to pick up the twins, because Monica asked me to as apparently they wanted a lift instead of catching the bus. I found it incredibly hard to believe that it was entirely their choice because I know Mon far too well, but the reality is that they are very unlikely to mind that much especially if I bring any kind of food into the picture.

My phone, which is in the phone stand on the dashboard, vibrates and the screen lights up. I have a new message from Jack. He says that he wants to stay behind at school try out for the freshman soccer team, but that Erica was on her way to meet me. I was just typing out a reply, when I saw Erica crossing the road, and then walking towards the car.

"Hey Dad," she said, as she threw down her bags on the seat beside hers.

"Good day?" I replied, as I started to back the car off of the side of the road.

"Yeah, actually," Erica said. "I had only some of my classes today because they do this weird thing where you only have some of your classes one day, and then the rest the next day. The classes I did end up having were Photography, Pre-AP English, American History and Biology."

"Do you have a favourite yet?" I asked.

"I think it will be either Photography or American History," Erica replied.

"That's so different to how I felt when I went to High School," I say. "I used to hate school because all the teachers couldn't appreciate my sense of humour, but I had a talent in Maths and Economics."

"I definitely haven't inherited your talent, then," Erica said, laughing at little.

I chuckle. "If you want, I was thinking that we could go get ice cream from McDonald's on the way home," I say, looking at Erica for her reaction.

"Ooh," she said, happily. "Yes!" She stops to think for a minute. "But if Mom finds out, she'll kill you," she adds.

"She doesn't have to know," I shrug. I continue to drive down the road, and stop at the roundabout. I have to drive out of the main city to get to work as the advertising company has its headquarters in the suburbs of Manhattan for some stupid reason. Luckily, there is a McDonalds on the way back into the main city that I can stop at for food but that barely compensates for how much hassle the whole journey creates.

I'm hoping that I can hide the trash from McDonalds in the bin before Monica checks the car. I also remember that I have my wallet in my coat pocket, and that it has loose cash in it as well as my credit card as the credit card is linked to the shared bank account that Monica and I share, so she also has access to the bank statement of it and I would have nowhere to hide.

After about fifteen minutes of driving through the shitty traffic, Erica and I reach the entrance to McDonalds. I decide that we should go through the drive thru, as my phone clock tells me that Monica will be expecting us back in just over half an hour and I would rather keep the list of crimes to a minimum.

"What do you want?" I ask Erica.

"Oreo McFlurry," Erica replies.

"Could I get an Oreo McFlurry and a large latte," I say to the voice on the other side of the speaker.

After confirming our order and paying for it, I start the journey home. The traffic is as bad as usual, and I take to opening up the Google maps app on my phone and using the GPS feature to scout the quickest route home.

"Erica," I ask, looking in the rear view mirror at Erica, who has her headphones on. I call her name slightly louder, and she takes out one earphone.

"Yes?" she says.

"Can you text Mom and tell her that we will be home later than I expected because of the traffic?" I asked her.

"Sure, Dad," she said.

"Thank you so much," I say, sounding relieved. I know Monica well enough to know that my reaction was not over the top, because Mon can be brutal. It's what makes her such a good boss, but it also makes her so goddamn scary sometimes.

After about 35 minutes of waiting, and me contemplating forking my eyes out whilst listening to some crappy talk show on the radio, we get into our neighbourhood. I can't say that I have felt this grateful whilst backing the car up into the garage before. Erica gets out before me, and disappears through the door.

I take the cardboard cup holder to the trash, and then lock the door on the car. I grab my briefcase, and walk through the front door of the house. I kick my shoes off, and then put them neatly in pair beside the other shoes under the coat hanging up.

I can smell Mon's cooking from down the hallway so I walk straight into the kitchen. As I expected her to be, Monica is standing at the stove. "Hey, babe," I say, walking up behind her.

She turns round, and I see her face light up. "You're home!"

"Have you missed me?" I ask, laughing.

"Of course," Monica said. "Jack got back half an hour ago, by the way. I've been cooking lasangna for dinner because I know that it's a family favourite. I hope that's okay!"

I look at Mon. "Monica Geller-Bing," I say, "Everything that you do, especially when it comes to your amazing food, is okay and enough."

"I am so glad I married you," Monica says, as she grabs oven mitts and takes the lasagna out of the oven. "Can you tell Erica that dinner is almost ready?"

"Sure," I say. I walk out of the kitchen towards the stairs, and then up the stairs. I see that Erica's bedroom door is ajar, and so I take this as an invitation to walk straight up to the door and push the door further open.

"Oh," Erica says, turning on her bed to face me. "Sorry Dad, I didn't see you there."

"It's fine," I said. "Mom wanted me to tell you that dinner is ready, and she wants you downstairs soon."

"Thanks," Erica said. "Tell her that I will be down there soon."

I leave the room, shutting the door behind me, and start to walk back down the stairs into the kitchen. I stand at the sink to wash my hands, and then look around at the plates of food as well as the lasagna. "Do you want me to take any plates?" I ask Monica, who is already reaching to take the lasagna to the table.

She nods, and I take the dishes of green beans and broccoli to the table. I sit down in my seat as Mon has motioned to me that she doesn't need any more help. Erica has come in and sat down, and Jack walks in as Monica is setting down the last plate.

"Take as much as you want," Monica says to all of us, and then sits back and starts serving herself the vegetables. "Jack, Erica," she says, looking around to make sure that they are listening. "How did your first day of high school go?"

Jack started talking first. "It wasn't too bad. I didn't really talk to many people, until the soccer try-outs, but everyone seems to be decent people."

Mon nodded, looking happy for him. "That's really good to hear, and I'm sure that more people will want to get to know you as the term goes on," she says. "What about the lessons?"

"They were fine," Jack said, shrugging.

"Do you have a favourite?" Mon continues to ask questions.

"I guess Pre-AP Maths is pretty good," Jack said. "Apart from that, they were honestly just really boring."

"What other subjects did you have today?" she asked.

I could tell that Jack was a little worn out by all the questions, but the expression on his face read that he hadn't expected any less from Mon and had mentally prepared for the onslaught of questions.

"I had American History, Pre-AP Physics and Pre-AP Chemistry," he said.

"They sound like the kind of subjects that you would like," Monica says, happily. "So, what about you Erica?"

Erica swallowed the forkful of lasagna that she had in her hand first, and then started talking. "It was surprisingly good."

"That's good," Mon said. "Did you make any friends?"

"I guess so," Erica shrugged. "I mean, I spoke to people and worked with people when we had to partner up with someone." She stopped and thought for a moment, before her eyes lit up as if she had just remembered something really important. "Oh yeah. This girl in Photography came up to me, and at first I didn't recognise her, but it was Lara. As in our cousin."

Monica looked a little confused for a minute. "Oh, shit. Did I forget to tell you that Aunt Rachel was thinking of sending her to Lincoln High as well?"

"No," Erica said. "You guys went there, didn't you?"

"Oh, yeah," Monica shrugs.

"That explained why the teachers seemed to recognise the name Geller," Erica said. "I've been really confused about it until you just reminded me."

Jack cut in. "It was the same situation for me. It also explains why the soccer coach was surprised to see me trying out for soccer. He seemed to give off the impression that he thought I would be better suited to the Science clubs or anything but sports."

I supress the urge to laugh, and Monica gives me the classic Geller death stare.

"He probably thought that you would be like Ross," Monica says, sheepishly.

"Probably," Jack said. "I'm pretty sure my actual performance during the try-outs has been enough to prove to him that I am not much like Ross at all."

"You're definitely as smart as he is," Monica says, "but that isn't the point you were trying to make, I know."

I decide that it's my turn to comment. "I'm glad you are getting a chance to show off your skills and I think that the coach will definitely appreciate your own ability the more that you take the chance to show it," smiling at Jack in a way that I hope is encouraging,

Jack meets my gaze, and I see in his eyes that he is grateful.

"Who's up for dessert?" Monica asks, getting up from her seat to move over to the fridge.

The twins agree in unison, and I join in. I get up to help Monica move the used plates off of the table, and switch them for bowls and cutlery for dessert.

"I made millionaire's chocolate cake," Monica says, bringing the dish over to the table from the fridge. She walks back only to select a tub of vanilla ice cream, and bring it over to start thawing.

I bring over an ice cream scoop, and the rest of the cutlery that we need, and take my seat again. I pass the cutlery around so that they are equally spread out among the people that need them. I sit back and wait for Monica to start serving, or tell me to help her.

"Chandler," she says, and I looked up from where I had zoned out. "Can you serve out the ice cream whilst I equally cut the cake?"

On command, I grabbed the ice cream scoop and started using my nails to try and grip the lid on the tub of ice cream and get it off. The ice cream is still a little too frozen for me to be able to cut through it with the scoop, but I decide that I didn't want to risk snapping the scoop through trying to use it on ice cream that was too solid.

Monica realised, and seemed to be contemplating what to do.

"Do you want me to microwave it?" I asked, trying to look and sound as helpful as I felt.

Monica looked at me. "No, I do not want to melt the entire thing and have to refreeze runny ice cream," she said. "Instead, we are going to wait for it to naturally heat up."

I felt a little hurt, but it didn't last for long as I knew that, at the end of the day, it was an area out of my expertise, and so I shouldn't really be surprised that Monica knew more about what to do than I did. I just sat back, and took my plate of cake as it was passed to me.

"This is so good, Mon!" I said.

"Thank you so much," she said. "I was a little worried that it was going to be a bit rushed, hence why I bought ice cream from the store. I was originally planning to take the ice cream maker out of the cupboards and use that."

"Mon," I say, locking eyes with her. "It's all fine. The fact that you made the lasagna and the cake all from scratch is more than enough."

"It's nice that you're saying that," Mon says, and I start contemplating when a good place to cut her off is.

I decide to jump straight in. "And we're leaving that there!" I say, looking pointedly at Mon, who is looking at me like she would very much like to start talking. "It is nice that I am saying that, wouldn't you agree, kids?" I look at Jack and Erica.

They agree with me, and Mon starts to look defeated. The smell of success, I think, smugly. I'm certain that Monica was probably think of a way to get me back after this. I was just focused on soaking up the moment in which I had finally managed to shut up Monica for the first time in a while. Especially when she was talking crap about how the fact that two of the three parts to dinner were homemade was not good enough.

A/N: That's a wrap on this chapter, finally. I think it would be important to note that, at this moment in time, I am not sure how often the updates are going to be as I am working on many projects right now. I hope, however, that you will stick with this story, and the other two in the series, and my new books which are a Cougar Town/Friends crossover and a book that is only based on Cougar Town. As always, I really appreciate reviews for this story, and suggestions for ways to improve it. Thank you endlessly for the support with all that I have written so far. I absolutely makes my day that people actually care to read my work.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Since this is not only my most popular book that I am writing at the moment, and also the one that I updated the least recently, here's the third chapter of my Monica and Chandler book in the Familiar Faces Trilogy. I also hope that you don't mind that often the storylines that are in the trilogy are often related in some way, for example there will be a chapter in all three that are set on the same day, or an event that is referred to in one of the books, and covered in some way by the others. That disclaimer aside, I hope that you guys like this chapter and check out the other two books in the trilogy, my Cougar Town crossover fanfic with Friends and the book that I am writing that is a Cougar Town prequel standalone. Many thanks from me once again, I hope that you review, read and make suggestions for improvements after finishing the book. Now that I've finished being a thirsty prick, let's get right on with the next chapter:

Chapter 3 – Monica

"Babe, is the picnic blanket and the cooler with the food already in the car?" I called to Chandler, whilst trying to text back Rachel who had just left with Ross and their girls to get to the historical estate that we were visiting with them, and Phoebe and Mike, with their twins.

"Yes, Geller," he called, from the open front door. "You already tried pack it in there again once today."

I roll my eyes. In my defence, it was because I was so worried about forgetting everything, that I had to check again. I also hid the car keys away from Chandler and the spare ones so he couldn't stop me from checking, and wrote a note to myself on the family whiteboard of their new location. So far, the twins had been completely unhelpful to the efforts to get ready quickly.

Jack was playing Fortnite on his PlayStation 4 at full blast and Erica was on FaceTime upstairs in their bedrooms. I had tried to get Chandler to tell them to get a move on, but he had said that they were probably trying to avoid being ordered around like he was, and I hadn't wanted to start an argument with him because it would mean that we had the potential to be even later which made it a complete waste of time and much less tempting.

Chandler walks back into the kitchen where I and says, "Mon, I think that we are almost ready to go. Let me take the last few things to the car and you can lure the kids back down here." Reluctantly, I let Chandler take over from me, and started walking towards the stairs and then up them to the bedrooms.

I decided to knock on Erica's door first, as I figured that she would take being interrupted better than Jack. I only had to wait a couple of minutes before Erica opened the door. "Hey Mom," she said. "I've got to get my jacket and do some other small things and then I'll be downstairs."

"Okay," I said, feeling a little annoyed that she wasn't fully ready yet but I trusted that Erica would stick to her word. I shut the door behind me, and walked the few steps between Erica and Jack's rooms. When I was standing there, it quickly became obvious that simply knocking on Jack's door would be completely drowned out by the sound of the video game, and so I decided that I should just let myself in.

I sat on his bed for a couple of minutes to see if he would notice me at all. After realising that this was completely and utterly futile, I decided to walk right up to the PlayStation and found and pressed the power button to turn it off. It took Jack about two seconds and a few attempts at still moving the controller to realise I had turned the whole thing off.

"Mom! Why did you do that?" he yelled. "I was halfway through a battle and it was finally going so well!"

I shrugged. "It was holding us up from getting out of the house to see the others," I said, "so I had to stop it so we can still get there on time."

"All you care about is being in control of everything," he replied, and I laughed because if he had tried to insult me, it had failed because I was so used to be being told that about myself that it had become a fact that I expected to be described with. "Why are you laughing?" he asked, still looking annoyed but slightly confused now as well.

"Do you realise how often people say that I am a control freak?" I ask him, shooting him my best 'are you seriously asking me that' look. "And do you honestly think that it would still be insulting to me then?"

Jack rolled his eyes, looking defeated but like he didn't care about it even so. "Whatever," he shrugged. "I'll come now."

"Good," I said, happily. I started scanning the room to make sure that Jack hadn't left anything out of his rucksack that he would need, and we both walked out. I shut the door behind Jack, and we both walked down the stairs.

Erica was already zipping up her boots, with her handbag on one arm. I swooped down to pick up my own boots, and zipped them up. Erica and I ended up walking straight out together, and I decided to sit in the shotgun seat. Chandler's phone was already secured in the travelling phone stand, and I could see that it was set up ready to go. Our eta was 12.46 pm, which helped me to relax a little more because we didn't have to be at the estate until 13.00 pm.

I just sat in my seat for about five minutes, after texting both Phoebe and Rachel that we were about to leave. Phoebe replied almost immediately, but I remembered that Rachel had already set off and probably wouldn't see it so it was pretty unnecessary. At least if she, Ross and the girls arrived first and wondered where we were, they wouldn't be left in the dark.

Chandler was last in the car, but then he turned on the ignition and started backing out of the garage and onto the main road. I activated the GPS on Chandler's phone, and connected the aux cord that was attached to the radio to my phone. I opened up Spotify, and shuffled my Weekend Favourites playlist. I saw Erica put on her headphones in the rear-view mirror, and sighed to myself. Even my daughter can't appreciate good music.

We joined the highway quicker than I had expected to, but that traffic was really good. I thanked the lord because it was one less thing that I had to worry about. I sat back and just watched the view, and occasionally reminded Chandler of where to go to make sure that there was no chance that we would get lost. He protested against me doing this because 'that's what the GPS is for', but I said that you can never be too sure, especially when it comes to technology and he gave up trying to fight me on it.

We only stopped off once to fill up the car and get a bottle of water because turns out that I couldn't bothered to pour myself a cup of water from the two litre bottles that I packed when they were buried in the boot. I was glad when Chandler pulled into the estate visitor parking lot, and I started keeping a look out for either Phoebe or Rachel's car. I saw Rachel's car and directed Chandler to the parking spot beside theirs. Chandler backed into it, and took the key out of the ignition.

"Can you see the others?" Chandler asked me.

"I think they're already inside," I said, but Chandler still didn't look convinced.

"Can you text either Phoebe or Rachel to be sure?" he asked, and I couldn't be bothered to pick a fight so I texted Rachel. She replied back almost instantly, with a photograph of the estate with Phoebe and Mike standing together in conversation with their twins sitting on the grass. I also recognised Emma sitting a few metres away, on her phone wearing what I recognised to be as Beats wireless headphones. She had sent a message a second later just to say that they were all there and looking forward to seeing us.

"They're all together," I said to Chandler, and we both got out of the car. The twins had gotten out before us, and were standing patiently on the stone border around the edge of the parking lot. Chandler opened the car boot for me using the car keys, and I lifted up the boot to get the cooler and the picnic blankets. I realised that I couldn't hold everything all at once and motioned over to Chandler. He took the cooler so I could shut the boot and locked the car with the keys.

We all walked towards the entrance reception area, and walked up to the tills. I scanned the prices board, and decided that it would be cheaper to get a family ticket than pay for everyone individually. After telling Chandler this, I pulled out my wallet. As I was telling the woman at the till the tickets that we wanted, Chandler slipped a $10 note into my hand which I was familiar with as his way of saying that I wasn't allowed to pay for it all myself.

Once we had paid, and I had looked at the maps to try and gauge whereabouts the others were, we started making our way to the others. I tried to catch up with the twins who seemed to have decided that it was a good idea to try and walk as far away from Chandler and I as possible, mainly to let them know that they would need to stop listening to music and actually communicate with the others when we caught up with them.

"I know, Mom," Jack's response was. "I don't need you telling me how to socialise; I hope it's not too shocking for you."

I scowled to myself. He was so much like his father, and clearly he had been gifted with the ability to use sarcasm to piss people off. I didn't bother telling Erica because again I trusted her not to be as rude as her brother might be tempted to act.

It was Rachel who spotted us first, and ran over to hug me. We hugged for about two minutes until Rachel started looking me up. "I really like that shirt," she said.

"Thanks," I replied. "It was on sale at Brandy Melville," I added, as I had a feeling that the next question that she would ask would be where I had got it.

"You go there?" she said, looking a little surprised.

"Yeah," I said. "Does that surprise you?"

"No," she replied, presumably thinking over what she had really meant to say. "I just didn't immediately picture Brandy being your kind of style. No other reason, honestly."

I smiled in the hope that Rachel would read it as a sign that I wasn't offended or upset in any way. She seemed to get that message, and changed the subject by asking how life was going for me at the moment.

"Pretty good," I replied, and she looked happy for me. "Work has been pretty chilled out, especially since I am the manager. I actually have less practical responsibilities now because it's more about making sure that everyone's happy in their job and that everything's running smoothly."

"That really sounds like something you would be good at," Rachel said, and I gave her an 'I know!' kind of look.

"What about you?" I asked, genuinely curious because we hadn't spoken in such a long time and I really disliked being so in the dark about the people I really cared about.

I could see Rachel's eyes light up, and I was glad because I know that the answer that she would be telling me was positive. "I love it," she gushed. "I get so much more say now with how everything's designed, which is literally what I've been working towards the whole time I've been at Ralph Lauren as you would already know."

"True," I shrugged. "I'm so happy for you, Rach, I really am."

"Thanks so much, Mon," Rachel said happily, wrapping her arm around my shoulder.

We walked to stand with the others, as we had drifted away from them when we had been talking. Ross walked straight up to me, and hugged me without saying a word but with a mutual understanding of the lack of need for any other reason but the fact we were siblings.

"You look so good," he said when we had eventually stopped hugging.

"You do too," I say, happily. "And Rachel seems to be doing well too."

Ross looked so happy, and I realised that I hadn't quite realised how happy that this would make me when I was imagining how today was going to go. "How's Ben?" I asked, particularly because he wasn't around for me to know how he was doing, and because I was always going to care about him especially since he was my first ever, and only, nephew.

"He's doing well in college," Ross said. "Carol and Susan are debating with him at the moment to get him to come home to spend Thanksgiving with them and then with me and Rachel rather than him going home to his girlfriend's family."

"Sounds fun," I say, involuntarily bracing myself because the situation sound terrifying and stressful even to me as someone who isn't really involved.

Ross nods. "Who knew that it would get harder and harder to have even basic interactions with their parents as kids grow older?"

I give a strained laugh. "That's what's coming for Chan and I, isn't it?" I say.

Ross starts to answer, but stops and reads my expression and seems to decide that it's not such a good idea anymore. I take this as a clue that I don't want to hear the answer because it's exactly what I thought it was, and start to latch onto the idea and trying and failing to come up with solutions to make the prospect less scary.

"Monica Geller-Bing, stop that!"

I snap back to the moment, and see that it was Ross who shouted as he knew that I was falling into a spiral of panic.

"Better now?" he asked and I nodded, mainly so he could leave me alone to mull over the problem more.

Ross made me walk back over as we had drifted again and engage in the conversation that he was having with Chandler.

"How's the teaching job going?" Chandler asked Ross.

"I'm not bored of it quite yet," Ross said. "Even with midterms and dispirited teenagers."

I can tell that Chandler is thinking how on earth would he stick to that, and I must say that I agreed. Then again, I knew that it would take more than having to mark midterm papers and having to teach bored students to stop him from wanting to share everything he knew about Palaeontology, is true passion in life beside Rachel as his wife.

Ross asked Chandler about his job. I tried to edge further away from them towards Phoebe and Mike, and started talking to them.

"Mon! How are you?" Phoebe asked as she hugged me.

"I'm pretty good," I replied. "How's your teaching job going?"

Phoebe starts to reply immediately. "It's good. I really like coming up with the most creative ideas for lesson plans and it also really helps to have the right audience for the ideas."

I nodded. She had a job as a kindergarten teacher, as she had had to stop her job as a masseuse when she married Mike. I must say that I was surprised at first that she would choose to go into that career path, but almost 2 years later, she had been doing better than any of us would ever have imagined at it. Personally, I would never be able to teach because I wouldn't be able to stand the fact that my students wouldn't take on my advice and so there would be no reason for me to even be there.

Phoebe had turned back to talk to Mike, and for the first time today, I had been able to take a moment to appreciate our surroundings. The view from the house to the grass was actually really pretty and reminded me of the kind of shot that you would have on a postcard. I took my phone out of my handbag, and opened the camera app to take a photo of the view to use for family Christmas cards or something.

A/N: Here's the ending of the next chapter in the Familiar Faces trilogy from Mondler. I hope that you like the fact that I have finally reunited everyone but Joey, but as you would know from the most recent chapter in Phike's book, he has hit it big time with acting and is understandably busy. I also hope that the reviewer who suggested that there should be more teen drama with the twins will enjoy the beginning. Please make sure that you read, review and leave suggestions for new ideas and improvements, and be sure to check out the other two books in the trilogy and the Cougar Town one and the Friends/CT crossover. Thank you so much again and again for the feedback and support that I have received generally so far, it still blows me away even now.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: So I'm finally back with the trilogy, which I'm actually even more excited about this time around as I am I trying out a new perspective, which is always interesting and fun. This chapter is mainly going to be an experiment with a chapter from Erica's point of view as an insight to a 'day in her life' in high school, and I will continue the idea across the rest of the books if this is successful. Also I have a feeling that you guys are going to have mixed feelings over my plans for the future of this novel, as there will be a couple of moments of major heartbreak and heart-warming to come. Before I finally shut up, just a reminder that this book also has two companion novels that are currently in the process of being written, and I also have two other novels set in the Cougar Town world and another that is a Crossover with Friends and Cougar Town that I would really appreciate you taking a look at. As always, please feel free to review and make suggestions for what I could write in the future or improvements and, with that being said, on to the next chapter we go:

Chapter 4 – Erica

"Are you both ready?" Mom called from the other end of the hallway nearest the kitchen, as Jack and I were grabbing our coats and shoes ready to walk out the door to catch the bus to high school.

"Yes," I said, tugging on my boots and then realising that I couldn't also hold my rucksack whilst zipping the side of my boot all the way up. I dumped the rucksack on the bottom step of the stairs next to Jack, and fully zipped up both boots. Jack lifted up my rucksack, and commented on how heavy it was before giving it to me.

Mom had now come to oversee what we were doing, which Jack and I knew all too well was because she was massively overprotective and just wanted to check that we were totally prepared for the day. I did appreciate it, but it was starting to feel more and more slightly irritating.

"Have you double-checked your timetable so you don't forget any of your books unnecessarily?" she asked me, and I nodded profusely attempting to hurriedly instil some kind of reassurance in her.

Jack rolled his eyes as it was pretty obvious he was also listening, but made a show of searching through his bag to try and reassure Monica because I could tell that he knew that it mattered to Mom and he loved her as I did and didn't want her to be worrying either.

When Mom was satisfied that we were both totally ready to leave, she hugged us both goodbye and waved to us from the doorstep as we started walking up the sidewalk in the direction of the bus stop to wait for the bus that would take us to the school.

"How are you feeling about today's lessons?" Jack asked, taking me slightly off guard but in a pleasant way.

"It's an A day today, so it's pretty good," I replied. "What about you?"

Jack paused to think, but I could see his expression turn into one of embarrassment even though he was attempting to hide it. "Oh yeah, it is an A day," he said, sounding flustered. "I've still gotta get used to the different system!"

"Same," I say, hoping that Jack would read from my tone that it was perfectly normal and not awkward to feel disorientated especially since we had only started freshman year halfway through last week.

He took a deep breath, and his expression relaxed and he shot me a grateful look before he started talking again. "In terms of the lessons I have today," he began saying, as we approached the bus stop, "the level of difficulty is intense, but at the same time I really like it."

"You're so smart that honestly you'll kill it," I say, having a moment of admiration for my brother.

"Thanks, bud," he said, smiling at me lovingly. "You are too," he added, moving closer towards the direction of door of the fast approaching bus.

I flashed my bus pass at the driver once Jack had boarded, and made a dash to the twin seats that Jack had managed to save. I started looking through my bag once I'd sat down to find my headphones, but I quickly realised that they had been the one thing that I had managed to forget.

"You all right there?" Jack asked me, looking concerned as he had realised that I must have been searching for something as I was going at it quite frantically.

"Left my headphones at home," I said to him, and I could see that he already had a solution in mind. I looked further into my bag and added, with a sigh, "and my phone as well."

"You can borrow my spare pair and my splitter," he said. "I know you aren't much of a fan of my music, but it's the best I've got."

"Oh, no, no," I said, hastily trying to thank him and praying in gratitude that I had a brother as sweet and as helpful as Jack was. "It's totally good with me."

Jack attached the splitter to the charging port at the bottom of his phone, and attached the two pairs of headphones to the splitter. He passed the spare pair over to me, trying to make sure that they didn't get tangled with the other.

We sat in silent peace the whole journey until I handed Jack back the headphones as we were getting off. Jack and I continued to walk together through the gates. He paused just as we were getting to the point where we had decided to go our separate ways to class and said, "Soccer practise starts tonight, and so can you remind Dad to tell Mom?"

I felt a wave of pride was over me as I had completely forgotten Jack's soccer trial and him getting in on the team, so it was almost like feeling it for the first time. "Sure," I said. "Have a good day, bud."

"You too, bud," he said back, hugging me quickly after making sure that the area around us was clear of any potential spectators that might get completely the wrong idea.

I started walking towards the first class of the day, American History. I was luckily able to sneak in at the back of the class to the nearest empty seat it wasn't obvious that I was a couple of minutes late. It wasn't so much that the teacher was strict that I was worried about; it was more the fact that I would draw attention to myself that I wasn't so comfortable about.

I managed to keep up with taking the notes that we needed to make so well that I had time to doodle on the paper as a way of testing out my new favourite pastel-coloured highlighters that had been bought in the back to school sales. The vibrancy of the ink and the smooth brush strokes were so perfect that I was really starting to feel irrationally worried about destroying them in some way before getting a full use out of them, but I shoved that thought to the back of my mind after concluding that it was completely and utterly useless. And, that it would be the kind of thing Mom worried about and there was no way that I was going to let how neurotic she was have any control over how I behaved.

The lesson was over before I knew it, and I stopped off at the library to exchange a book that I had taken out last week which I had discovered that I had no intention whatsoever of reading as it had seemed far more interesting than it actually was for another that I had discovered.

I managed to get the book, after having to get the librarian to search quite extensively on her computer for the book in the library's records. I have no time to visit the cafeteria before lesson, which I decide is less of a bad thing as it was annoying, but really didn't matter since lunch was straight afterwards.

I enter the photography lab just as the bell rings signalling the end of recess and the start of lessons. I take the seat that I have claimed beside Lara. She's me and Jack's cousin, as Mom's brother is her Dad. She looks more like Monica and Ross than Jack and I do if I'm honest, but I think genetics can be weird like that so it doesn't fuss me too much.

"Hey," I say, as I set out my camera in its case and notebook on the desk. I prop my tripod in its own protective bag against the legs of the stool-style chairs that we use in here.

"Erica!" she says, in her usual exuberant manner that I know is something she shares with her Mom. "How was your weekend, well the rest of it after the day out at the estate?"

"Full of homework," I said, not even trying to cover up how dispirited I sounded whilst admitting how my weekend had actually been. "There's no way that I am willing to allow myself to slack and run the risk of flunking a class, because Mom would probably have an actual heart attack if I did."

"My mom is so relaxed about homework," Lara says, coming across as quite surprised about the difference in attitude to homework. "Dad's always trying to argue to make Mom be stricter about the rules, but they don't end up making any actual decisions."

I laugh. Jack and I have heard many stories from when Rachel and Ross used to hang out with the others all together, and it doesn't surprise me one bit that they still argue with each other. "I think Dad has given up trying to argue with Mom unless it's literally a life or death situation," I say. "But they're also head over heels in love with each other still, so that probably helps."

"Sometimes I do wonder about Mom and Dad," Lara says, and I can tell that she said that half in seriousness and half in humour. "How they've still managed to be together for 14 years."

"I think they do actually love each other," I say, wondering how Lara and are just getting away with chatting when we are supposed to be working on a project together that neither of us have yet collected the equipment for. "Sorry to cut you off, but I'm going to go and get the stuff we need for the project."

"Oh yeah," Lara says, looking apologetic because seems to be actually slightly worried for me about the potential consequences of not doing this project because of being slightly afraid of Mom. "I'm so sorry, I just get so caught up…"

"It's fine, honestly," I try desperately to convey the fact that there is no problem. I hear Lara take a deep breath of relief, and decide that it's okay to go and collect the equipment that we needed.

I come back to the desk to see that Lara has started laying out the photos that we had already taken as part of a tester collection as we both were new to using the more technical equipment. We were supposed to be brainstorming ideas for what ideas we had for our first portfolio project, which would count as almost an introductory part of the course to ease us in to the bigger, and more pressured tasks.

We worked solidly for the rest of the lesson, whilst still talking. At first it was just catching up, and then the conversation took a turn to where we were literally just saying the first thing that came to mind and erupted into many fits of laughter as a result. The professor did look over at us once or twice, but we managed to make it look like we had some kind of composure.

Lara and I both decided to go to the cafeteria together, and get lunch. I had no work to do during lunch, and not many friends other than Lara and Jack, who didn't honestly really count. I did have plans to speak to more people, I was just focusing on trying to do well to be able to get into college and getting a career for my sake because I didn't fancy getting murdered by Mom if I hadn't already murdered myself. My first day back after the weekend had been good so far, and I was honestly so glad after silently panicking a lot about it since the end of last week.

A/N: I hope that it makes sense to end the chapter here, and that the fact that the chapter is narrated by Erica has been successful so I know whether you think it's a good idea for me attempt it with the other books. I have also decided that I am ditching my other two books at the moment to be able to give my 100% attention to the trilogy and be able to move these books along with all the plans that I have for the future that I am ridiculously excited by. I hope that you guys will share my enjoyment and won't hate me for one or two of the decisions that I have chosen that I can't go too much into the details of, but trust me that none of the main characters are going to be going anywhere. Anyways, with that being said, I hope that you enjoy this chapter and review and make suggestions for improvements. Thank you as always for the support that my writing receives – it literally means the world.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: So I'm back, and I have gotta say that in terms of the content of this chapter, I am really not looking forward to writing it but it is necessary for the narrative to progress in the way that it should go. There is going to be a lot of angst between Monica and Chandler, so don't expect it to be easy to read but hopefully y'all won't hate me too much because they're never going to separate as a couple throughout the whole trilogy. That being said, this is the beginning of a lot more angst, so the main purpose of this drivel is just to say that you should be warned that from now on it's going to be an emotional rollercoaster.

Please don't hesitate to check out the other chapters before this and in the other fanfics, as some of the events won't make sense if you don't read the trilogy as I update all three books. Don't also hesitate to make suggestions for improvements and review, and with that being said, let's continue on to the next chapter:

Chapter 5 – Chandler

I stood up as Mon started to take the dinner plates from the table. I was finally going to see if I could talk to her about Judy after what Phoebe said earlier, by helping her wash and dry the cutlery.

"I'm going upstairs to study," Erica said, as she stood up from the table. She had been acting weirdly quiet as well as Mon, but I hadn't asked her because I knew that it was more typical of her to be like that.

"That's fine," I said. Jack had already got up, and rushed upstairs presumably to continue playing video games. I watched Erica walk down the hallway and up the stairs and then turned to walk to the table to take the very last stuff from the dinner away.

Mon filled up the washing bowl with warm water, and squirted washing-up liquid in it. She rolled up the sleeves of her shirt, and grabbed the scourer off the side of the sink. When I had put the rest of the plates and cutlery on the side, I grabbed a tea towel, ready to dry for her.

Mon passed me my first plate, and I decided that now was a good time to start talking.

"Are you sure you're okay?" I asked, trying to make eye contact to show that I was genuinely concerned out of love for her.

"I'm fine," she said, in the same deadpan voice that she had been using these last few days that, quite frankly, I was fed up of because it wasn't holding up the façade that she had been trying to create and maintain.

"Are you sure?" I asked again, trying to hide the annoyance that was trying to edge its way in.

"For fucks sake, Chandler! I'm fine!" Mon yelled. "Will you just drop the subject?"

I knew that she was lying, and I couldn't bear having my own wife lie to me when it was so obvious that she needed help and wasn't fine. At the same time, I didn't want to upset her by asking again if she was adamant that she wouldn't tell me.

A voice in my head whispered that she needed me, and as someone that loved her, I had a right to know to have any ability to be able to help her. I hated that whenever she was ill or upset, Mon's default mode was to shut people off. I hated, hated, hated, HATED it.

"Mon, you can always be honest with me," I said, attempting to reassure her in any way possible whilst also flailing around as helpless as she was in this situation. "Always."

"So you think I'm lying, then."

It wasn't so much the words Mon used, but the way Mon said it that shocked me. It was accusatory, tainted with disbelief that buried under my skin like a forest of needles. I would never purposely lie to her, so I think that's another reason it stung so much. Worst of all, I knew that Monica knew it, and the unsettling thing for me is that she said it with such sincerity and purpose that I couldn't tell whether she genuinely was trying to hurt me and meant it or not.

"No," I started to say, trying to sound more reassured and calm than I felt in the hope that Mon wouldn't see through the mask.

"Good," Mon said, washing a plate she had in her hand a little more furiously than I think she intended as it almost slipped from her grip. She caught it just in time, and continued talking, "Let's hope it stays that way."

I couldn't agree to just let it go where we'd left off. "You really think I would lie to you? Really, Monica? Really?" I said, this time putting no barriers up against how hurt I felt.

A single tear rolled down Monica's cheek and I could tell that I had finally hit a nerve somewhere. She wiped it away, and turned back to the next plate that she was going to wash up.

"Can you acknowledge me at the very least?" I said, realising that I had completely tensed up out of frustration.

Monica continued to look away, and I panicked that I had made her feel worse. Then she turned back to me, and finally met my gaze. "No," she said, sheepishly. "I don't think you would lie to me," she added, almost too quietly for me to hear.

I take a deep breath in before starting to talk again. I am still tense, but more in anticipation of the rest of our conversation than frustration now. "Then you'll tell me what's been bothering you," I say, trying to hold my ground and keep a clear mind. "If _you_ wouldn't lie to me; I don't deserve you to lie to me when something _is_ up."

Mon leans against the countertop to stabilise herself, and I see the expression of shock that morphs into hurt plastered all over her face. "In 17 years, I never thought that I would have to reconsider my husband's trust to me," she shook her head.

I wanted to tell her so badly that it was just because I wanted to help. But, in true Monica Geller style, she was being stubborn and wasn't going to back down until I agreed with the lie. "I think you've got the wrong idea," I say, trying desperately to communicate that I was only arguing just to get Mon to admit that she was struggling with the fact that her Mom was ill and could die and that she wasn't alone because she had me.

"What 'wrong idea'?" Monica said condescendingly, as her eyes blazed with anger.

"I'm not trying to hide anything from you," I said, feeling absolutely torn and helpless but absolutely ridiculed at the same time. "I'm just trying to get you to admit that you aren't doing as well as you seem to think that I will be satisfied by."

"I know you too well for you to try and hide anything from me," I continue to say. "I just want to say that you aren't alone, so I would appreciate it if you would stop acting as if you are."

"No! I won't!" Mon replied, as more of a yell. "You don't know what's going on, and you wouldn't understand anyway! Give it up, Chandler, give it up!"

"If you're going to be a stubborn bitch about it," I say, squaring up to her, "I'm sure you would appreciate knowing that actually I do know what's happened. Phoebe told me."

I hear a sharp intake of breath, and look up. A few more tears have escaped down Monica's cheeks and I can see her expression change as the mask slips right off. I can see that she is as heartbroken and scared as I thought she was.

"About what?" she asks, floundering as she desperately tries to wipe away the tears, and I'm hoping and praying for her sanity that she realises that she doesn't have to keep torturing herself by hiding how she feels.

"About Judy," I say, almost immediately regretting it, which was only exacerbated by Mon's surprised but pained look.

"What about her?" Mon says, clearly still trying to throw me off the topic by acting as if I don't know what I am talking about.

"Do you really want me to have to answer?" I say, with my best 'this has gone on far too long' look.

There's a couple of moments of silence between us, and I start to worry that I have cut far too deep and really upset her.

"You know what?" Mon starts saying again, basically choking through the lid she has put as a barrier on an almighty flood of tears. "I give up, okay?" she says, with painful, childish tones of fear laced throughout her voice. "You win. Yes, Ross and I's Mom is in the ICU, and no it's not a piece of cake knowing that she probably won't get out."

My heart is literally breaking for her. More tears escape down her cheeks, and I desperately want to say something to help her. Instead I hear myself saying, "And it took you this long to tell me?"

I immediately regret it, especially when Monica's eyes search for mine, full off chilling betrayal and disbelief. "Can I not be the one that is allowed to hide their emotions for once?" Monica asked, with her best business, short voice despite the fact that tears were running steadily down her cheeks.

"No," I say, trying to match her tone. "Not when it means that I can't even help my own wife!"

I can tell that she is trying to stay angry, and is struggling because she wants me so desperately. Her expression said it all.

"Admitting your struggling," I say, trying to move closer to Mon to hug her, "doesn't make you weak, for goodness sake. When will you learn that?"

As we hug, I can see that Mon is starting to laugh, even if it is still mostly drowned out by a cascade of tears. I look at back at the still half full sink and realise that we have been talking for so long that we forgot we were supposed to be washing up. "Shall we get back to washing up?" I ask Mon, and she agrees, still trying to wipe tears away from her face but looking like a weight had been taken off her shoulders.

"I love you," she sniffed, looking me in the eyes.

"I'll always love you too," I say, returning her gaze, in a pact of mutual love and respect for each other.

A/N: I'm sorry this is another short chapter, but I just didn't want draw out the scene for any longer than it seemed to be necessary and effective to. Regardless, I hope you like it and can leave your thoughts in a review and also make suggestions for new ideas. Thank you again for all the support I have been receiving throughout the whole journey of writing these books, it means everything to me. Until next time, goodbye!


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Y'all know the drill by now, so I'm going to try and keep this short but just a reminder to check out the rest of this book and the other three, preferably in upload order. Also, please keep the reviews coming because I really do appreciate every single review and suggestions for improvements or new character arcs (as I think they're technically called). I will also definitely be experimenting with the POVs that the chapters are from, after getting such good feedback with them so far. Without further ado, onto the book:

Chapter 6 – Monica

"Jack Geller-Bing! Get your damn suitcase down here right now!" I yelled from the foot of the staircase. "We don't have much time left until I have to drop you off at the Buffay-Hannigans!"

"I'll bring it down as soon as I can! Chill the hell out, Mom!" Jack yelled back. Rather than getting annoyed here, I decided that the way to deal with this more effectively and satisfyingly was to go up to his room and then be able to nag him as much as I wanted to. I walk up the stairs, grinning as if I'd just won the lottery.

Jack's bedroom door was ajar, so I let myself in. "I've come to help you pack," I announced. Jack looked up at me, the PlayStation controller resting in his lap.

"Because trusting me to do it successfully alone just isn't good enough for Monica Geller," Jack said, shaking his head.

"No need to be so bitter about it," I said, trying to remain calm, even though Jack's comment had definitely hit a nerve and I wasn't sure how many shots he could take before doing some serious damage.

"Then don't give me reasons to act like that if you don't like it," Jack replied.

I stood in front of Jack, dumbfounded. His comment had taken me by surprise, and left me with no idea as to what exactly he was trying to get at. "Sorry, _what_?" I said. "What do you mean?"

"What I _mean_ is," Jack started to say, not trying to hide the gradually increasing levels of anger in his voice, "would you care to explain why the fucking hell you even _thought_ it would be a good idea to keep the fact that my grandmother is probably going to die soon hidden from me?"

"Because…" I falter because I know that if I try to say anything more, I will completely break down in front of my son and there is no way in hell that I am letting that happen. Not on my watch, I think, almost as reassurance to myself that I can regain control of the situation.

"Because of what, Mommy?" Jack emphasises the word 'Mommy' as patronisingly as he can. "What could possibly be good enough to keep your one and only son from the opportunity to say goodbye to her?" He also emphasises the 'one and only' part, clearly pulling out all the stops in his attempt to tear me down.

"Dad and I were going to tell you," I say, in a desperate attempt to defuse the situation before it was too late for the both of us. "We just needed to find the right time, and that hadn't come up until before the other day…"

"Excuses, excuses," Jack shook his head, tutting.

I can feel tears welling up, but I try desperately to keep them down so I can fight my corner for as long as I can. "Seriously," I say, "We planned for you to be told as soon as possible. This not the kind of thing that Chandler nor I would ever purposely keep from you."

"Well, too fucking late," Jack said, barely adjusting his position which led me to suspect that he wouldn't be changing his attitude any time soon either. "The damage has been done."

"And you're going to carry a grudge against right up to your own deathbed because that's a perfect solution to this kind of situation, right?" I say, allowing how exactly fed up and how frustrated I was edge into the tone of my voice.

"At least _you'll_ be the first to know I'm dying," Jack said scathingly, with no remorse or shame at all in his body language or tone. "You see, it would be killing two birds with one stone, because you are my mother and it serve as a reminder of the fact that _I_ actually let you know that I was dying before I was dead, which is how most people with even a shred of decency behave."

In the moment of silence after Jack had finished and was waiting for my response, I realised that I was shaking so hard that I needed to sit down otherwise I literally would've passed out. Sitting down enabled me to try and think clearly and calmly enough to try and think through an answer.

"Jack, darling," I hoped introducing the conversation in a more pleasant way would make it easier for the both of us, "I know the way you found out about the situation was wrong, and Dad and I take full responsibility for that, but for us to have any hope of enjoying our time with Mom between now and whenever her time's up, you have _got_ to look past this." Actually saying the phrase 'when her time's up' hurt like I was repeatedly stabbing myself in the gut.

"No," Jack yelled, stubbornly. "I hate you. And I hate Dad too. You both are fucking shitty parents! Dad with his 'jokes' that aren't even that funny and you with your obsessive control freakiness are the perfect match for each other because you're both losers who would have no one else otherwise and for if your aim is to give birth to dependent, pathetic idiots that will be as unsuccessful as their parents!"

"Well I fucking hate you too!" I screamed back, choking on mouthfuls of tears. "And, for the record, Dad and I never actually gave birth to you, so you if you want to find the person to blame for your birth, then sorry but _we_ can't help you!"

I've gone too far. Jack looks back at me, eyes wide, in complete disbelief and shock. "So you're not my birth mother?" Jack finally says, so quietly that I almost can't hear him. I don't want to answer him, but I know that he deserves to know the truth. I didn't want it to have had to come to this for him to find out. I imagined that Chandler and I would end up helping them find Erica if they wanted to ever get in touch with her, and everything would end up being happy.

I nod, completely unable to look Jack in the eye.

"I don't believe you!" Jack exploded. "First, the whole thing about a woman I don't even know if I should be calling my grandmother, and I find out that two of the three people that I trusted most in the world have been lying to me ALL THIS BLOODY FUCKING TIME! Really well done! You and Dad have done an admirably good job at completely screwing Erica and I's life over for good!"

I try to stop the tears before I break down so much that I just know I'll barely be able to stop, if at all. I start to shake again uncontrollably, and the tears start cascading down my face. I'm a shit mother. And I've got Erica and Jack as proof of that. Chandler and I have clearly been kidding ourselves all these years to think that Erica and Jack would never find out that we aren't their biological parents, let alone take it well. All these years I have tried to be a good Mom clearly can't make up for years of lies, and I need to understand that, obviously.

"Wait, no, Mom," I hear Jack. He sounds scared. "Mom!" he exclaims, louder with a more alarmed tone.

I looked up at him and he did a double take. Do I really look that shit? I thought. I fumbled in my pocket for my phone with one hand, and tried to dry my face with my sleeve with the other. I readjusted my position on the bed so I was sitting upright and opened the phone camera. Even I myself was shocked by how I looked. Since today had been a day where I was not in work, I had applied usual mascara rather than the waterproof one I usually wore at work, so that was smeared in trails all down my cheeks. Other than that, I seemed to have fared well in terms of the damage that could've been done. The same couldn't be said for my hair. Rather than hanging loosely around my shoulders as it usually did, large clumps of it were matted together whilst the rest of it hung either straight down or ever so slightly off at an angle. Honestly, I would be scared if I saw myself when I looked this terrible.

"Are you okay?" he asked, clearly very nervous that he's upset me far worse than I would forgive him for. "Should I go get Dad or something?"

"I guess so," I shrugged, still sniffing. I dragged the blanket that was on the bed, and wrapped it around myself. Jack left the room to get Chandler.

When Chandler appeared at the doorway, guided by Jack, I saw his expression change almost immediately to one of grave concern. "Shall I leave you two to talk in peace?" Jack asked, clearly uncomfortable.

"Yes," Chandler nods, as he moves to sit next to me and drapes his arm around my shoulders. The door clicked shut behind Jack, and Chandler turned to look directly into my eyes. "What the hell happened?" he asked, sounding almost completely confused but deeply concerned at the same time. I couldn't tell whether he was more bothered by my appearance or the fact that Jack had bought him here so urgently.

"Good question," I said, hoping that adding a pretty desperate attempt at humour might ease the situation a little for Chandler.

"Seriously, Mon," he said, clearly unimpressed but not surprised at what I realised he probably thought was an attempt to divert his attention away from my situation. "I'm not leaving your side until you tell me what the fuck happened."

I owed Chandler an explanation, being the person that I vowed to share my triumphs and struggles with for the rest of my life. "Jack and I had quite a sizeable and pretty brutal fight, and I said many things I shouldn't have," I said, knowing that it was definitely only really the tip of the iceberg of the extent of the situation, and also knowing that Chandler had would realise that.

"What did you say?" he probed further. I didn't want to say, obviously, because we had planned when we would tell the kids that they weren't biologically ours together, so it would rack up as pretty unforgivable feat of betrayal in his eyes. "I won't judge you, I'm sure."

Oh, but you so would, I thought. "Come on, Mon, it can't be _that_ bad," he prompted.

I sighed heavily. Maybe it was the right time to be completely honest with him, even if I hadn't planned for it to happen this way. "It just slipped out of my mouth before I could stop and really think about it, but I told, or rather shouted at, Jack that he was adopted and we weren't his and Erica's biological parents," I said, a tide of shame washing over me.

"You didn't," Chandler said, shaking his head like he does when I've made an attempt at a joke that was not funny at all, yet I'm still convinced it is.

"I.. I did," I stutter, the idea of making eye contact with Chandler unbearable with all the shame that was weighing me down.

"And you're being 100% honest?" Chandler replied, his tone scarily serious and even verging on accusatory.

"Yes!" I exclaimed, realising almost immediately that it was far louder and that I sounded far more irritated than I had intended to.

There was an awkward silence, as I juggled whether I should apologise or just wait and hear what the reply was whilst Chandler stood frozen in shock. Just as I was considering walking out as I was starting to struggle to bear it much longer, Chandler finally spoke.

I adjusted how I was sitting into a more comfortable position and released the deep breath I had been subconsciously holding onto, bracing myself for the disappointment and shame that I expected to receive as response to what I'd done.

"Well," Chandler started saying, in a tone that completely caught me off guard. I had expected to hear shame in his voice, but there was something else that confused me at first but that I eventually realised was, albeit considerably more hesitant than usual, but still unmistakably humorous. "That's one twin down, one to go."

Genuine laughter bubbles up inside me as Chandler's sense of humour has always been a weak spot for me, and he knows it. Even if he wasn't trying to cheer me up, somehow he has made a very promising attempt.

"To be honest," Chandler says, in a more serious but more of a resigned tone than one of anger or frustration, "they were bound to find out at some point, so don't be too hard on yourself Mon. You're not a bad parent, and just think about how lucky we were to even be able to the kids that we adopted. If you weren't a genuinely good mother, than there would've been no way that Erica would've agreed to letting us have the twins."

"I know," I say, almost completely unable to deal with how sweet Chandler was being and how true what he was saying was. "I just feel like I've blew it all now. Jack basically hates me, and I never actually thought that my own child would say that and seem to mean it!"

"Monica, think about the situation," Chandler said in his no-nonsense business tone. "How much of what you said did you actually mean?"

He looked at me expectantly, clearly wanting me to know that he was waiting on an answer from me. "All the stuff about how we were waiting for the right time and way to tell Jack what was going on was genuine, but then saying that I hated Jack was not true at all. I just wish that I hadn't mentioned Erica at all, because the situation was bad enough as it is," I had to stop talking, because I knew that I was going to crack again.

"We can't do anything about the fact that Jack knows about Erica," Chandler replies, still with his authoritative tone, but also reassuring. "And also that it's only really a matter of time before our own Erica finds out too," he sounds pained for a moment or two but then continues on, "but we can impose some damage control. I want you to go and find Jack to talk with him, and I'm going to call Mike to ask if he can come and collect Jack so you don't have to drive. We'll deal with whatever comes next after that."

"Okay," I nodded, feeling more in control of the situation now which I always found reassuring. There was no clear solution to all of the problems, but I was confident that whatever happened Chandler would take the punches with me through it all, and right now that was all I really needed to know.

A/N: I'm so glad that was done because as rewarding as it was to write, it was definitely one of those scenes that are harder to write. Doubtless, I hope that you will enjoy reading it and review it for me and if you want to read more, you know that there are five chapters before this one plus two other books to explore. I would also appreciate more plot suggestions, and I have some empty chapters that I would appreciate ideas for, and general suggestions of how I can improve my writing. You might also be thinking 'When will all this angst end?' and I can tell you with confidence that, at least in this particular book, there will only be one more chapter for the moment that is going to be more angsty and then around nine where the drama dies down, before it picks up again up in later chapters, but that's all I'll say about that. Very finally, thank you for your ongoing support and don't forget to leave your thoughts in a review for me!


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: I'm back, with Monica and Chandler's next chapter. Just going to say my standard reminder to check out all the chapters before this one in this story, and the other two books within the trilogy. The best way to read each chapter as they are uploaded, but they obviously can still be read as standalones. Also make sure to leave your thoughts in a review for me, and continue with the suggestions for improvements or new plot arcs. Lastly, a quick thank you for all the continued support, and just a word of warning that the level of drama within the story should be easing off a little soon for a while and becoming slightly less of a main focus. Anyways, onto the story:

Chapter 7 – Erica

"Twins! Get down here!" Dad yelled from downstairs.

Jack and I had been sitting in my room since we got home from Phoebe and Mike's. We were due to go back there tomorrow, but we just came home because we needed to collect some things because we had been running out. Meanwhile, we had been trying to figure out what to do about the fact that we still weren't happy at all with Dad or Mom at all after them keeping the adoption secret from us for so long.

Jack had told me almost as soon as he had arrived at Phoebe's and Mike's, as I had eased it out of him after realising that something pretty serious seemed to be on his mind. Truth be told, I was so hurt by it that I completely understood why Jack had reacted in the way he had, and I was also glad that I had someone who was so close to me in exactly the same position as I was.

"What are we going to do about the compulsive liars?" I said, not caring at all about how accusatory and rude I sounded.

"I got nothing," Jack said, sounding as lost as I felt with the situation. "You're usually the one who comes up with good ideas," he added.

I was flattered by Jack saying that, but how confused and angry I was vastly outweighed any feelings of pride I felt. "I mean, we've got to do something about it because we can't just let them think that we are letting then get away with it," I said.

"I know," Jack said, as if he really was trying to help me out here.

"I say we confront them and let them know how we feel about the situation," I say, not entirely happy with the plan, but knowing it was the best I had and far better than having nothing. "Mom and Dad have probably figured out by now that you've told me, so it wouldn't be as if we were dropping any more surprises."

"True," Jack shrugged, looking as if he could definitely work with the idea.

"Let's go now, then," I said impulsively, but also out of desperation to get it over and done with. "What are we waiting for?"

"You make it sound like it's going to be so easy," Jack says, one eyebrow raised, but then he seemed to realise where I was coming from.

"Okay then," he said, "but I'll leave clearing up the damage control to you." I scowled at him, and he shrugged as if to say 'you got me into this situation, so you'll also be the one to get us out of it'. I decided that I would deal with the fact that it was an unfair comment later.

I opened Jack's bedroom door, and he followed me out and downstairs. We walked straight through the house to the kitchen, and heard Mom and Dad in a discussion. I paused in front of the shut kitchen door and gave Jack a nervous glance. I didn't want to interrupt Mom and Dad, and I also wasn't feeling as confident as I had been upstairs.

Jack gave me a look as if to say that he didn't care, and if we were going to do it, then it should be now or never. I flashed him a death stare, and pushed open the door to the kitchen.

"Oh, hi guys," Dad said, as he saw us. Mom noticed us too, and smiled. I wasn't sure whether smiling back was going to ruin the point of why we came to talk, so I ignored it. I didn't look up to catch Mon's confused and hurt look as in reaction to it.

"What brings you here?" Dad asked, clearly trying to get some kind of reaction from us.

I eyed Jack nervously. I didn't want to say something without Jack being okay with it, but I also didn't like how uncomfortable saying nothing was. He just shrugged, so I went ahead and started talking. "Jack and I had some pretty important questions to ask you guys," I started, hoping desperately that Jack would continue on from me.

"What about?" Mom asked, her brows furrowed as she tried to make sense of the situation.

"The fact that you and Dad have kept the fact that we are adopted secret from us for far too long," Jack said. I saw Mom's look change to one of weariness and like she had talked about this before and had drawn a line under it that no one should attempt to cross. "And the fact that we are unhappy about it would be the understatement of the century."

"We've already been over this…" Mom trailed off, sounding exhausted.

"I know," Jack said, "but we didn't decide on what exactly to do about it." He glanced over at me, and then added, "and I think Erica has some things she would like to say on the matter."

I shot him a death stare, as both Mom and Dad's eyes moved onto me. "I..I had just had some questions," I started to say, unable to keep how uncomfortable I felt about the situation out of my voice. "First of all, did you guys have plans to tell us at some point or were we expected to go throughout life without ever knowing who our real parents were?"

Mom looked at Dad as if she was desperate for her to take over the conversation. Dad coughed, and the started talking. "Mom and I had intended on telling you guys," he said, looking uncomfortable and as if he might kill Mom for making him have to answer, "but we just hadn't quite found the perfect time to yet. We were even planning on helping you both get back in contact with her." I could tell that he was hoping that we would appreciate that, and I did start to feel bad for jumping into the conversation with such an accusing question.

I took a quick look at Jack, and it became very clear to me that there was no chance that we budging. He was still annoyed and hurt by the situation, and that made me want to get down to the bottom of why Mom and Dad had decided to keep such an important thing secret from us because, at the end of the day, it really wasn't fair or acceptable.

"The next question is why would you let such a secret slip when we already have the situation with our 'grandmother'," I said that with air quotes because honestly I wasn't even sure whether I could call her that anymore. "Don't you think one bombshell is enough?"

From Mom's pained expression and Dad's deadpan expression that he used whenever he was desperately trying to hide his emotions, I could sense that this had gone perhaps a little step too far. I didn't care, though, because they had hurt me and Jack and needed to know it. I was a little shocked by how cold I was being, but at the same time felt like it was necessary.

"Do you?" Jack said, expressing how annoyed and hurt I realised that I felt in his tone.

Dad gave him a warning look, until Mom tapped him on the shoulder. They turned to each other and Mom nodded even though she didn't look happy at all. "Erica," Mom says, trying to meet my gaze. "You deserve an explanation. Jack and I got into a fight, and I let it slip by accident. I know it's not the kind of thing that would be considered an accident, but that's the honest truth."

Mom shuffled nervously on her feet, clearly waiting to see my reaction.

I was angry. Really, really angry. Since when did this kind of thing become appropriate to reveal in an argument? And to my brother? Of all people, I couldn't imagine someone worse to be told about it. And also when I couldn't be there to comfort him, when he would need it the most. It was so badly timed, and completely and utterly uncalled for.

"You're right about me deserving to have an explanation," I started say, not bothering to keep the icy cold anger from seeping into my voice. "You're even right about the fact that it shouldn't be considered an accident. You're wrong about it being an accident, because clearly if you were trying to use it against Jack, then you clearly did mean every word otherwise you wouldn't have said it."

Mom opened her mouth as if she wanted to reply, but she thought better of it. "That's all true," Mom said, looking more worn out than she had before now but also now completely defeated. Mom looked at Dad as if saying that she couldn't take this anymore, and he started talking.

"As we said before, it was just extraordinarily bad timing," Dad said, "and also, if I remember correctly, Jack actually started the argument that he had between him and your Mother. So, we all clearly know who the real one to blame here is?"

I looked at Jack, and saw the anger bubbling up inside him. "Nice try, Dad," he said. "I see you are reverting back to your only talent, which includes and is limited to, shifting the blame off of yourself in awkward situations! If you wanted to know how this attempt has gone, then I've gotta say that is by far one of your best."

Dad sighs, clearly thrown completely off track by Jack's attempt at sarcasm. He took a couple of seconds to recover, before starting to talk again. "Touché," he said.

I turned to Jack. "Maybe we're laying it on a little too thick," I said, hoping that how concerned I was over making sure that we didn't massively cross over the line to where we were just being straight-up mean.

"Oh yeah?" Jack said, bitterly. "Have you got any better ideas?"

I shrugged, because I didn't.

"Can one of you actually answer the question rather than just dodging it?" Jack says. "For Erica's sake, since she doesn't know and wasn't here the other day."

Mom took a deep breath, and started to talk. "Jack called me and your father 'fucking shitty parents' and I guess the fact that we aren't actually biologically related was one of the only ways that I was going to be able to deal with being called something like that," she said, and I could tell that it upset her deeply to even mention what happened.

I couldn't believe it. "So you honestly thought that was the right way to deal with the situation?" I said, allowing my anger to completely boil over. "That's so insensitive and immature of you, woman who isn't even actually my Mom! How could you not stop to think that it might make someone who was already upset by everything going on in their life EVEN MORE UNHAPPY AND LOST? I can't believe I ever trusted you for fourteen fucking years that I'll never even get back! What a motherfucking joke!" I say, surprising myself by bitterly laughing at the amount of swear words I had managed to say almost all at once, and how shocked and annoyed it was going to make Mom.

I could see that Mom had started crying and shaking violently, and for once, I didn't feel at all ashamed. After all, she had bought it upon herself. Dad looked from me and Jack, as we just stood there, clearly thinking that we were some kind of spawn of the devil. I shot a look at Jack, who just shrugged. We continued standing, looking on as Chandler tried to comfort Monica.

"This is all your fault!" he yelled at us, after about half an hour of an almost continuous sobbing and shaking from Mon and many futile attempts at calming her down. "You made her get like this, so I hope you're both bloody fucking proud of yourselves!"

I suddenly started to feel really awful, almost as if I had just realised how bad the implications of the situation were. It honestly looked as if Mom wouldn't be able to calm down for at least a few more hours, and it was because of Jack and I. But I did love Mom, and I do feel completely horrible. I looked at Jack, making the fact that I disapproved of the situation clear, and he gave me yet another nonchalant shrug.

"Jack," I said frostily, "Care to join me in the hallway?" I made sure that he could see from my expression that it wasn't a question of yes or no, so much as a 'come now or I'll kill you' situation.

Jack followed me into the hallway, and I immediately started talking. "Don't you think we've done enough damage already?" I said, desperate for Jack to agree from the urgency in my tone and how completely sickened I now felt about the situation.

"No," Jack said. "I want Mom and dad to know how much we have suffered as a result of keeping such a sick secret from us. It's like the two people that are the most important in our lives have been lying all this time, and then who do you trust? Like, what else are they keeping from us?"

"But don't you think making Mom shake and cry for probably what will now be hours is really that good of an idea or even the slightest bit fair?" I said, desperate to get Jack to see past his grudge and realise that this was just completely unfair on Mom, when we all knew that her Mom was unlikely to ever get out of the hospital until she had died. "With her Mom's situation and everything?"

"Well, maybe she should've thought of that before letting such a big secret leak," Jack said, being insufferably stubborn to the point where I wasn't even sure that I would be able to get through to him.

"Well, you do what you want," I said to Jack, angrily. "But I'm going to go in and apologise to Mom and Dad for reacting so strongly because there is fuck all chance of anyone being able to move past this otherwise and actually continue to get on with our lives!"

"Fine!" He yelled back. "Next time you want my help with anything, especially crazy situations like this one, then I will refer you back to this situation and refuse you any help just because it always has to go your way!"

I turned back to the kitchen door, opened it and slammed it behind me. The slam felt oddly satisfying. Dad was still trying to console Mom, and he scowled when I walked in.

"What do you want?" he asked, bitterly. "To insult Mom more? To remind her of the fact that your Grandmother is going to die soon? Just because once clearly isn't enough of a reminder?"

I hesitated for a moment, caught off guard by Dad's outburst. "I... I actually came in here to apologise for my behaviour," I said, shame flooding my mind. "I shouldn't have let my anger towards the fact that I'm adopted take such a hit on two of the only people that have always had my back for 14 years."

"You should've thought of that before you yelled," Dad said, shaking his head as he watched in disbelief at Mom, who had stopped crying but was still sniffing and shaking as violently as she has been when I left. "Just look at her."

I was so used to seeing Mom having total control over everything and being so organised that to see her completely helpless like this was really scary. "I know," I said, in agreement with Dad. "I hope Mom will be all right."

"I'm sure she will be," Dad said his tone reassuring. He seemed to have acknowledged that I was genuinely sorry and had forgiven me. "I'm glad you had the decency to come back and apologise," he added. "It takes a lot of courage to do that, especially after what we did not being the best way to handle the situation."

"Oh, no, no, no," I said, not wanting to excuse my behaviour because my reaction was still more dramatic and unnecessary than it should've been.

"What's done is done," Dad replied. "We just have to move forward now, and deal with the punches as they come." He stayed with Mom, but beckoned me over to join them. When I joined him, he offered me a hug with Mom.

A/N: So here's another end to the newest chapter in my Familiar Faces Trilogy! Just a quick reminder to check out the chapters before this one and the other books within the Trilogy, and also to leave your thoughts on this chapter and for any new plot arcs or ways that I can improve my writing in general. Thank you again for all the support I receive from you guys, and I hope you will continue to love what I write for the books!


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Also, I think that you guys are going to seriously like this chapter because I'm starting to bring back more cute Mondler moments, but they won't last for long for the time being. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!

Chapter 8 – Chandler

"Monica! For goodness' sake! I told Erica to go with Jack's to Phoebe's so I could focusing on making sure that you weren't going to make yourself faint or something!" I shouted, desperately trying to fend off Monica's angry tirade at me after discovering that Phoebe had the kids.

"Well, I didn't know that," Monica said defensively, folding her arms against her chest in such a way that reminded me of a 5 year old's attempt at a temper tantrum. "You could've told me rather than making me panic more!"

"I tried to tell you," I said, my voice rising with every word. "But you were so stuck in your own thoughts and own stress that there was absolutely no way that you were going to let me get a word in edgeways! Don't blame me for trying!"

Monica still had an absolutely fed up expression on her face. "No, I'm blaming you for failing to tell me where our own fucking children are!" she yelled back, and I knew that I needed to desperately change tack if I wanted to have any chance of actually getting through to her.

"Are you done yet?" I asked, hands on my hips with a pretty damn good impression of Monica's fed up expression if I do say so myself.

"No," Mon replied, but I could see her start to crack as she saw my expression. She looked away from me for a second or two, and then turned back to me. I could tell that she was trying to hide laughter because her eyes gave it away.

"You sure about that?" I asked, one eyebrow raised, knowing that I was well on my way to making her crack any moment now.

"I hate you," she replied, and I could see from the upturned corner of her mouth that she was really struggling not to burst into fits of laughter. "How is it that you always know how to get me at exactly the wrong moment?" she shook her head, now full on laughing but also trying to look annoyed as well.

"Well, I haven't been married to you for over 17 years," I said, shrugging and gesticulating my clear confusion, "so I'm probably not the person you're going to get the best answer from."

This made Monica laugh harder. In fact, she ended up laughing at that comment so hard that she actually started snorting. This made me crack up as well, so Mon and I ended up just being in fits of laughter with each other.

I felt myself start to lose my footing because I was laughing so hard that I had start to lose control over my balance, but luckily managed to pull out a chair from around the dining table before I actually fell. Monica stood there still laughing until she realised I had sat down, and decided to join me.

"I love you," I said, feeling a pang of overwhelming happiness that such a beautiful woman as the one who was sitting with me was there, and that I was blessed enough to be able to call that woman my wife. "Since our engagement, and even before that, you have always meant the most to me and I know that will never change and I always want you to remember that too."

Monica smiled at me, glowing with happiness. "You know that I'll always love you too, right, baby," she added, reaching for my arms so that we could join holding hands across the table. It was also easier to look into her eyes and revel in their beauty this way, so I was more than happy to oblige.

"I do," I said, feeling like the luckiest guy in the world. This is the kind of moment that I hadn't realised how much I had missed since everything recently had been happening until right now, as it was happening for the first time in a month. A month wasn't that long, but with the intensity of everything that had been going on, it had definitely felt much more like a year or two. "I'm sorry for not telling you about the kids sooner, I just got so caught up in thinking that you didn't trust me that I couldn't see how much knowing should've been how we dealt with the situation," I added, knowing that the situation would later turn into guilt for me later, so I wanted to make sure that had no chance of happening by apologising right here and now.

"And I'm sorry for ever making you have to question where I trusted you or not," Mon replied, her expression now more one of concern, as if she was worried that she had really hurt me.

"It's totally fine, Mon," I looked back up at her, hoping that my more serious expression would reassure her that I was being honest. "Don't worry."

She swallowed, and I could see her take a deep breath.

"I had something to ask anyway," I started to say, trying to keep the excitement and happiness that I was feeling hidden until I had finished speaking. "Since we don't have the kids, and Thanksgiving is coming up soon, what do you say to going out for a nice meal at the new Italian restaurant in the city?"

I could already see from Mon's expression after what I said that she was delighted by the idea. This was the reaction I had hoped for because I had a feeling that a chilled out meal and then maybe watching a film together would be a perfect distraction from everything going on right now. "I'd love to," she said finally, and I could see that she seemed to be attempting to fight tears of joy that were threatening to escape.

"I thought you deserved it," I said, allowing myself to grin now I had let out the surprise. "Especially with everything going on with your Mom and the kids, and trying to juggle everything so expertly because even the best need to take a break. So think of it as your reward from your loving husband for being one of the best Mom's I've been blessed with the pleasure to get to know, and a reminder that I will always stick with you even when things seem completely and utterly unbearable."

Mon was crying at this point, but based on the fact that her expression was one of sheer happiness, I knew that they were of complete disbelief that something like this could happen to her. I had only seen her like this twice – at our wedding and our engagement. I wanted to say something, but I knew that if I did I would start to cry myself, so I decided it better to reach in for a hug.

We stayed hugging, one arm wrapped around her shoulder and playing with her gorgeously thick hair and the other securely around her waist. She started gently rocking side to side on the balls of her feet, and so I joined in. It added a surprisingly therapeutic touch that I didn't know I needed until now. I never wanted it to end.

Eventually, we broke apart and I gazed at the time. "Should we go get food because I know we ate earlier, but I'm still hungry," I said, hoping that I hadn't ruined the moment and that Mon would agree with me.

"Yes," she replied, looking at me with fondly as if she hadn't expected me to say anything less. "But first," she said, leaning in toward me again, this time for a kiss.

The kiss was heavenly, and I never wanted it to end. I couldn't get enough of her, and realised that I had really missed this all recently when neither of had been in the mood because of the situation. It was Monica who decided that enough was enough, and asked me, "Do you have your phone on you?"

I nodded. "Yeah," I said, loading up the app that we used to order pizza when we couldn't be bothered to use the home phone and the pizza place leaflet. "I'll order pizza, you go sit over on the sofa and choose a film to watch."

Mon obediently walked over to the bookshelf that was on the left of the couch, and started flicking through the DVDs. I stayed leaning against the counter, ordering two large pizzas and a tub of cookies and cream ice cream for the both of us. I joined Mon afterwards, sitting down next to her to face the TV screen where the opening credits of the film we were watching rolled.

Neither of us moved from our seats until the doorbell rang.

"Babe, could you go get that for us?" Mon said, looking at me with hopeful eyes.

"Sure," I said, getting up from my seat to go to the front door. I opened the door and paid the pizza guy using Mon and I's shared bank account contactless debit card. I took the pizza boxes from the guy, and started walking back to the living room.

I placed the pizza boxes on the glass coffee table, and put down the ice cream beside it. I was about to open the first box of pizza to take a slice when I heard a cough. I looked up and saw that Mon was staring at the tub of ice cream.

"Yes?" I said, after it clocked in my mind that it was Monica who had coughed.

"Don't put an ice cream tub on the coffee table," she said, sternly. "Put it back in the freezer and then come back. Also, get some plates too whilst you're at it."

I nodded, knowing that it was best to just agree with her. I took the tub and managed to wedge it into the freezer. I looked through the dishwasher and managed to find two clean plates, which I stacked up and bought back through to the living room.

I set the plates down on the coffee table as I sat down. Monica immediately took the top one off the stack and started piling it up with pizza slices. Before she turned back to face the TV screen, she flashed a small smile at me which I knew was Monica-code for 'I'm really grateful for you doing this even though I bossed you about and gave you no chance to say no'. Nevertheless, I was just glad she was happy after how much of a whirlwind rollercoaster today had been because Monica's happiness ended up being my happiness. I learnt very early on that it was a married couple thing, and that I shouldn't question it or fight it.

We didn't speak again until the pizza boxes were empty and Monica gave me a look that I recognised as wanting ice cream. "I'll go get it," I said, giving her a knowing look, and stacking up the pizza boxes in my arms.

I realised once I opened the tub of ice cream that I didn't know what utensil to use to dish out the ice cream. I started rifling through the drawers in the kitchen to try and find something. I found what looked like a scoop but had a fancy mechanism on it that I was yet to figure out what it was for. I decided to try for first time lucky so I grabbed and squeezed the handle, lowering the scoop into the ice cream. As I bought it back out, I realised that the scoop had filled with ice cream.

I was going to do some kind of victory dance, but I realised that if I tried to do it with a full scoop, I would have wasted precious ice cream by dropping it all over the floor. I managed to equally dish out ice cream into two bowls, put away the ice cream tub and get back to the film before the end credits started rolling.

"Thanks, babe," Mon said, as I handed her a bowl of ice cream. She leaned over and kissed me which I took to be a definite way of thanking me.

"You're welcome," I said, shovelling a mouthful of ice cream into my mouth.

A/N: I thought here would be the perfect place to leave it so I hope you guys will agree with me. Here's just a reminder to you guys to keep the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. I can also say that I have the next three chapters (including this one) fully planned out to write, so keep looking out for new chapters. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!

Chapter 9 – Jack

"Oh, look! There's Mom and Dad!" Chris shouts, as I follow his gaze to where Phoebe and Mike are a tiny spot within a rollercoaster cart far from below us.

We are on a ride which lifts you up, and then drops you and just repeats the cycle. It looked a bit underwhelming and easy from a distance when Chris and I first saw it, but honestly we were so desperate to go on a ride that we just decided that we would put up with it anyway. It had turned out to be very much more than what we had initially thought, as I had definitely felt like I was about fall whilst slipping and sliding around my seat as the lifting and dropping cycle repeated itself.

Chris waves, and I join in as I haven't got the heart to tell him that they probably won't be able to see us. "They ignored us!" Chris groans, before being interrupted by a loud scream as we were dropped again and felt the air rush under the seat again.

"At least they seem to be enjoying themselves," I said, hoping that Chris wouldn't be too disheartened. I was enjoying myself, which I guess had been a surprise, because the fact that I felt bad over how I had reacted to Mom and Dad had started echoing through my thoughts and had been bringing me down. I still felt like having a break was a good idea, though, because I felt too embarrassed to be able to properly apologise and I was still figuring out exactly how I felt about what had happened.

"Yeah," Chris smiled, looking over at me as the ride slowed down and the sound of the ride operator's voice filled the air, announcing that it was time for the next riders to board the seats and wishing the current riders a good rest of the day.

I got up from my seat first, and waited at the gate where people were exiting and entering the ride. Chris joined me, and we both kept a look out for what we could do next. There wasn't much of a line for the go karts, so I decided to ask Chris what he thought of going on one of them. "How do you feel about racing me on a go kart?" I asked him, watching Chris nod passionately.

"Of course!" he said, pumping the air with his fist. "Game on!"

"Okay!" I replied, Chris's infectious enthusiasm starting to bubble up inside me. I couldn't resist the chance for a competition, which I bring down to the fact that I have a sister who was a competitive as I was when it came to any kind of competition and the fact that Mom herself was like this and has always encouraged us.

As we both climbed over the edge of the track, I darted my head over to the noticeboard, hoping that there would some kind of direction on how old you had to be to play. Luckily, it read that the cut-off age was 7 if you wanted to drive alone, and so Chris just made it.

Chris and I both rushed to find and get in our respective karts. A ride attendant came over to me, and lifted down the metal seatbelt bar and rattled it slightly to make sure that it was secure. Once everyone had been sorted, there was a sound of a foghorn, and jolly music started blaring as the go karts burst into life.

I immediately tried to seek out where Chris's kart was, and soon enough started to make a beeline for it. I was about half the way there, when a kart came rushing towards me and clipped the side of my kart, only sending me skidding a couple of yards. I was still a little winded, and so I decided it wise to take a breather for a couple of minutes where I was parked before starting up again.

Once I was back in the game, I started charging my way through the rest of the karts, satisfyingly hitting about three or four as I pursued Chris. He was attempting to back out of a tight spot, whilst being cornered in both directions by two karts. Feeling like this was giving them an unfair advantage, I successfully attempted to ram into the rear end of one of them.

The driver was shoved away from the corner, and then promptly hit by another kart speeding in the same direction. This allowed Chris to escape, and me to be able to tail him again. I managed to stay out of his line of vision, as he was more focused on trying to make sure that he didn't end up stuck in another corner.

I whizzed past him, clipping the side of his kart and yelling 'Gotcha!' I made sure to try and get far enough away from Chris's kart that he couldn't get revenge, as I suspected this was probably going to be what he did the next time we passed each other.

In the meanwhile, I tried to do as many laps around the track whilst also making it my mission to successfully hit and throw off course as many people as I could. Some would say that it was brutal and unnecessary to aim to hit everyone for the sake of it, but I would definitely have to disagree and say actually it's part of the fun.

I was trying to pursue another kart when out of the blue, Chris came speeding past me and clipped me so hard that I was sent skidding right into the corner that he had initially been trapped in when we last came into contact. Immediately as I was trying to steer my way out, I caught a glance of a kart coming towards me so fast that I swear time slowed down before the impact hit me.

My arms flew up to hug the safety bar, as I hit it with full force and my head was forced down to connect with the bottom of the safety bar. I immediately snapped upright, and realised what had just happened as my head started to throb as if had just developed a headache. My arms ached from holding so tightly onto the safety bar.

I noticed that Chris hadn't moved from where we had collided, and was now wearing a look that was somewhere between guilt and concern. "Are you okay, Jack?" he yelled over the music. I made eye contact, and gave him a thumbs up.

Even so, he seemed to decide that we should work together rather than separately for the rest of our time on the track. Together, we managed to stall and crash a good load of karts, and I was sad to see the fun end when the foghorn sounded to signal the end of our allocated time on the track.

"Should we do another round?" I asked Chris, who was looking as if he wasn't sure what to do next, much like me.

I looked down at my watch. It was almost half past 12, and I had no idea whether Phoebe or Mike had thought about timings for lunch. Figuring that they would've texted us if there was anything we needed to know, I unlocked my phone and clicked on the messages icon. As I had suspected, I had as new message from Mike, saying that Chris and I should meet them at the café near the entrance to the park at 1pm.

I started considering our options, with the map that I had got out of my pocket. Chris and I could both stay here and do another round of karting, or go to either the rollercoasters that were closer to the entrance or the water attractions which were also close to there. "Which do you want to do?" I asked Chris, after explaining both possibilities.

"I think maybe we should stay here," Chris said, looking back longingly at the karts.

I nodded, because I was definitely up for another round of karting. This time we played full out dirty and, by the time it was over, I was genuinely wondered how much longer I would be able to keep a standing position until I completely collapsed and couldn't get up.

Luckily, Chris and I both managed to reach the café and join Mike, Phoebe, Erica and Addie at the table before either of us had any kind of chance to fully die inside. Mike took both our lunch orders, and he and Phoebe walked up to the counter to go order them.

"What have you guys done so far?" I said, taking my first proper look at Erica and Addie since this morning.

Both looked tired, but I couldn't tell whether they had been on any of the water rides yet. I was about to ask when Erica opened her mouth to reply.

"We went on the water rides first thing so we would be dry now," she said. "They're really good, by the way, but I don't recommend going on them just as we're about to leave, because you seriously get soaked whilst on them."

I nodded, making a mental note to suggest we do that next to Chris. She had also answered my question as to how it looked as if they hadn't done much, and I realised that I had no other questions.

"Have you gone on the rollercoasters yet?" Erica asked me.

"We were going to but we got side-tracked by the go karts," I said. An idea flew into my mind and I started talking again. "Do you guys want to do a competition? Like best of five, who can hit the most people whilst doing laps of the track?"

Erica looked at Addie, who nodded passionately. "You're on," she said, already looking as hyped as she always did when we were competing against each other, which was a common occurrence.

"May the best driver win!" I said, as I saw Phoebe and Mike walking back over to join the table.

"How have you found the park so far?" Mike asked, as he sipped his coffee in the seat next to Phoebe.

"It's been really fun," I said, looking at Chris just to make sure that he definitely felt the same way. He nodded in agreement.

"What have you guys already been on?" Mike asked, looking from me to Chris as if he was hoping that Chris might also answer as he had been quiet.

Chris answered. "Jack and I have been on a few of the rides, but my favourite was the go karts because I won against him almost every game," he said, pride in his tone.

"That's sounds like you had a lot of fun," Mike said, approvingly. He shot me a look of gratitude that I managed to keep Chris happy and entertained, and I smiled back. I was only too glad to play with such a surprisingly talent player, and it hadn't felt at all like work in anyway.

"What about you?" Mike said, turning his attention to Addie and Erica.

I took the opportunity to check my phone, and saw that I had a text message from Mom. I was tempted to ignore it because it was unlikely to be more than just a message to check up on me, and I was fine so I didn't really need to reply to her because if there was a problem, she should know that Mike or Phoebe would tell her.

Instead, I opened up the mobile app version of Fortnite to play whilst we waited for food. One of my friends was online, so we played a multi-player quest. I did feel bad about not replying to Mom, but I still hadn't forgiven Dad or Mom for what they had said, and I didn't want to make them feel like I was okay about it by acting normally as if nothing had happened. I did hope that Erica might have said something because having both of us blank them did seem a little unnecessarily mean of us.

A/N: I know that this is could be argued as quite an abrupt ending, but I didn't have much else to say with the characters. Regardless, here is my usual reminder to you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Lastly, thank you so much for your continued support and I hope that you will continue to stay invested in the story. Have a good day whenever or wherever you read this and enjoy!


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!

Chapter 10 – Monica

"This is a surprise," Mom said, as I walked in through the door to her hospital room. "Where's your brother?"

"At work," I said, trying not to let the fact that I felt hurt by her comment affect my actions.

"How come you aren't at work yourself?" she asked me, and this time she was really testing my temper.

"You know that since I've become the manager at Javu's, I don't have to be in every day," I say, surprising myself at how calm I sounded, considering that I felt quite differently.

"Oh yeah," Mom said breezily, as if she had just remembered something from a shopping list that she had meant to buy but had forgotten.

"How are you doing, yourself?" I asked, thankful for the opportunity to change the subject, as I sat on the edge of Mom's hospital bed. Her nurses worked around us whilst we talked.

"So, so," she replied, suddenly looking more worn down than I'd remembered. "Your father still hasn't stopped worrying about me, though. Yesterday, he brought me a pack on how to write a will and insisted that we go through it together!"

"He's just trying to prepare for every eventuality," I said, a lump forming in my throat. Mom mentioning this made everything that I had been trying to forget about seem far too real, and I wasn't sure how much longer I could handle it. There had been a reason I had been putting off making many visits to the hospital, and I had only come today because of Chandler threatening me otherwise.

"I know that," Mom said, irritation now very clear in her tone. "But does everyone really have to keep treat me like I'm dying?"

I swallowed, but the lump wouldn't budge. "As I said, we're just trying to do what's best for all of us," I said, hoping that she wouldn't stay on this topic too long because I wasn't in the mood to argue. Luckily, the nurse started to talk.

"Can we get anything for you, Monica?" the one who was putting away Mom's laundry asked me.

"Just a flat white coffee would be good, thank you," I said, grateful for the change in topic.

"What about you, Judy?" the nurse asked Mom.

"I'll just have my usual coffee," Mom replied. "Thank you, Maureen," she added afterwards, as I realised that that was the nurse's name.

After the nurse left, an awkward silence filled the room. I didn't really have much to say to Mom, and turns out that she didn't seem to have much to say to me. Usually Dad or Ross were the ones who managed to keep a conversation going between us that didn't involve snide comments, and so with the absence of both, it was proving particularly difficult to find common ground.

To tell the truth, I was even missing the snide comments because there was absolutely no way in hell that I wanted all my last memories with Mom before she passed away to be of awkward silences and no proper conversations. Just as I was really starting to lose it by becoming bogged down in my own thoughts, the door to the room opened and in came Maureen accompanied by Dad.

"You have a visitor," Maureen announced, as she watched Mom and Dad hug each other.

I couldn't help but feel the love and affection radiating off them in that moment, and I felt the strong urge to break down because I knew that they wouldn't always be able to depend on each other for comfort like this, and it was truly heart-breaking. Even though neither of them had always been the nicest towards me, they were still my parents and still one of the couples that I looked up to.

I could tell that Maureen was feeling a similar way to me, especially as we met each other's knowing looks. She moved from where she had just set down the coffees, and started to hug me. I hugged her back because, even though she was only a familiar face from my visits here so we barely knew each other, any hug was still comforting in a moment like this.

Dad broke apart from Mom, and walked over to me. He embraced me in a bear hug. I noticed that his hands seemed to be a little wet, and noticed that his eyes were shining. The lump in my throat seemed to grow in size as I realised what had happened. I wanted more than anything to reassure him that he was always going to be able to be there for his adoring wife, but I knew, like he did, that it was impossible.

"How are you doing?" Dad asked me when we had stopped hugging, with a concerned look on his face and attempting to make eye contact with me.

"Fine," I said, trying my best to all of Dad's attempts.

"You sure about that?" he added, really trying to find a way in. I knew that he knew something was up, I just didn't want to worry him with everything that had happened with the twins, because I knew if he knew that they weren't speaking me to me and Chandler, that he would have questions. I simply couldn't bear the thought of offloading more stress onto him.

"No," I said, looking away. I had to look away because I could feel my eyes filling up with tears, because I had promised to myself that I wouldn't say anything, and now I had and have ruined everything. I could tell that Dad was more worried now and more desperate for me to answer him, yet I only seemed more convinced to not answer him at all costs. My brain was telling me that I should say because I couldn't hide behind this mask forever especially when it was barely working, but my heart was saying that it was a bad idea.

I stood there, trapped by this dilemma, becoming more and more convinced that I was developing some kind of stress-induced headache and wanting more than anything to break down and not have to carry so much on my shoulders everywhere I went.

"Monica?" Dad said hesitantly, sounding nervous as if he wanted to help me but wasn't sure what was the best way to do it. "Do you want…." He trailed off.

I moved closer to him, and fell into his arms. The hug was so comforting that I never wanted to let go, because for a minute, it was like I was a kid again when I was sure that Dad and Mom were going to be able to solve all my problems. It was like there was nothing that was big enough to do real damage, and I realised that not only did I long for that reality right now, I depended on it.

But it wasn't possible, and I knew as an adult that it was a false sense of security. Dad and I finally broke apart, and I wiped my eyes because I had been subconsciously crying. I sat back down at the edge of Mom's bed, and buried my head in my hands. I heard dad and Mom talking, and even a small laugh from Mom as she laughed at something Dad had said.

It was a beautiful moment to be part of and so that made it all the more unfair that all I wanted to do was burst into tears. My jean pocket vibrated, and slid my phone out to see who had messaged me. It was a text from Chandler saying that he had got out of work early, and wondered whether I wanted him to pick me up from the hospital.

I replied yes, because as much as I wanted to stay for Mom and Dad's sake, but I was unsure how much more of this I could take until I had a full breakdown. I wiped my face with the sleeve of my jacket, and turned back to face Mom and Dad.

"Chandler's coming to pick me up and take me home," I said, feeling guilty that I was leaving them. "Hope that's okay with you guys," I added.

Dad nodded. "That's completely fine," he said, speaking for Mom as well.

He hugged me before I walked out and tried to navigate my way out of the ward to the hospital entrance. Chandler pulled up in the car just as I walked out the main door of the hospital, and I hopped into the shotgun seat as fast as I could.

"Was the visit okay?" Chandler asked me, eyes wide with concern as spoke.

I looked at myself in the rearview mirror, and realised that I had massive streaks of mascara all down my cheeks and my eyes were still red and puffy from when I had been crying. My hair was the only thing that looked half decent, if a little messy. "It was fine," I said. "I just got a bit emotional, and Mom didn't make things any either for the both of us."

"Babe, I'm so, so sorry," Chandler said, looking at me as if my unhappiness greatly upset him. I saw him lit his hand off of the steering wheel as if he wanted to put his arm around my shoulders, but then remembered that he was driving and couldn't do it. Instead, he decided to squeeze my hand gently but firmly.

"I love you so much," I said, trying not to cry again, but this time out of joy that I still had someone that loved and appreciated me as much as he did on that night in London when we first got together.

"I love you so, so much more than you love me," he replied. He seemed to be trying to get me to argue with him over who loved each other more, as he knew that I would find it enjoyable and end up winning as I always did.

"That's not possible," I said, smiling to let him know that I appreciated the gesture. "You know that I always win things like this."

He nodded, and smiled. I was surprised at how graciously he had admitted defeat as he usually put up a much stronger fight, but he must have realised that I needed to be able to win. I decided that I really couldn't ask for a better and more supportive husband, and I just wanted to sob over how grateful I was.

"Mon, you're crying." I looked up and saw Chandler looking at me, the look of concern having returned to his face.

"It's happy tears, I promise," I said, squeezing Chandler's free hand reassuringly. "I just can't believe I ended up with someone as supportive and gracious as you."

"Me neither," Chandler replied, as if he himself was trying to stop the tears from flowing. "You really are the best wife I could ever, ever have been blessed with."

I nodded, but didn't say anything else because I wanted Chandler to be able to focus on driving us home safely. Chandler was literally my lifeline and I was more than glad to have had him after being with my Mom, because I'll be honest that she hadn't made the visit any nicer to bear than I already expected it to be and had rather attempted to make it worse just by being how she usually was with me, which had never been particularly good. Dad was much better, which I had expected because especially as I got older, he had started showing more of a caring side to me and, although it hadn't made up for the earliest years of my life, it was definitely a drastic improvement.

A/N: Now that chapter is over, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!


	11. Chapter 11

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!

Chapter 11 – Chandler

I turned the car into the driveway of our house and parked, turning off the ignition. I could barely contain my excitement over what I had planned for Mon and I tonight, and could only hope that Mon would be as free work jobs and responsibilities as she should be according to the family calendar.

Even though I could tell that Mon was home from the light on in the hallway, I still had to unlock the door with my keys. "Hey babe," I said loudly as I walked in to announce my arrival.

Here was a moment of silence before I heard fumbling and the sound of footsteps getting louder and louder until I could see her. Mon was wearing yellow washing up gloves, with a can of what I assumed to be some kind of dust repellent or other cleaning product in one hand.

"Hey, you," she said, her arms snaking round me in a hug.

"What you been up to?" I asked, even though it's pretty obvious.

"Just some household chores," Mon replies, resting her head up against my shoulder. "Nothing that you would find particularly interesting."

I smiled, because I knew that cleaning was one of Mon's happy places, and the thought of her being happy made me happy.

"Do you want a coffee or something?" Mon asked, as she detached herself from me.

"That would be lovely," I said, without having to even having to think much about my answer. Mon started walking through the hallway to the kitchen, with me hot on her heels. I made myself comfortable on the couch, thinking through the best way to bring up my suggestion for the evening plans I had in mind for us.

Mon sat down next to me once she had made the coffee. She snuggled up close to me, pulling a fluffy blanket that I hadn't even realised that we owned around us. We sat in silence for a while whilst we drank coffee, enjoying the peaceful and relaxed yet intimate and romantic atmosphere that had settled around us.

It was moments like these that reminded me of why I loved Mon so much, because it was easy to get swept away in how natural beautiful she was both on the outside and on the inside by just admiring her as we sat. She had taught me that couples could last and real love was something fleeting and precious, but could be captured and kept burning for as long as you wanted if you were willing to put in the hard work.

"What do you want to do tonight since it's just the two of us?" Mon asks, catching me off guard as I was still wrapped up in reminiscing.

This was the perfect opportunity to make my move. "I had an idea that I think you're going to absolutely love," I said, as Mom looked at me inquisitively.

"Go on," she said, gesticulating for me to continue.

I took a deep breath, trying to keep a lid on the excitement that I could feel bubbling up in me. "There's a restaurant that do a meal and a romantic boat trip for couples in the city," I said, as I saw Mon's eyes light up as she realised what I was saying, "which I immediately knew we had to do, as like an early Thanksgiving celebration so we can visit your mother and father with the kids on the actual day, but we can still get a romantic night together."

"I love it," Mon breathed, as if we had just won the lottery. To see her this excited just over a romantic dinner out made my heart want to burst out of pure happiness and love. Her expression suddenly changed to the one that I knew she adopted when she was busy. "I'd better start getting ready to go, then," she said, getting up from the couch and placing her mug carefully by the sink.

She left to go get ready, and I washed up our mugs and put them away before going up to get ready myself. I knocked on our bedroom door, not wanting to accidentally walk in on Mon.

"You can come in," she said in answer so I pushed the door open and walked in.

Mon was standing at the mirror, adjusting her earrings. She had donned a deep scarlet dress, with a skirt that flowed down her legs. It was hard not to gasp as she tuned to face me and I got a full view of just how gorgeous she looked. "What do you think?" she asked, clearly having followed my gaze.

"I think..." I faltered, tying to think of the best word to describe the awe I was feeling in the moment. In the end, I settled on exquisite. "I think that you look absolutely exquisite."

Her smile grew wider as she walked over to me and planted a little kiss on my forehead. I started to look through our shared wardrobe to find something suitable to wear that wasn't the suit I had worn to work. Luckily, I had a suit that wasn't creased or dirty hanging up, so I walked over into the en-suite to get changed.

As I went to put on the jacket, I realised I had forgotten to get a tie. I walked back out to the bedroom, where Mon was sitting on the edge of her bed, two pairs of heels beside her. "Babe," she said, looking up at me. "Which do you prefer out of these?"

I walked over to her bed to get a closer look at the options. The first pair of heels were black, with small fabric flowers around the ankle strap. The second were a deep scarlet boot-like design that colour co-ordinated with her dress.

"Obviously, I'm still going to take sneakers for the boat," Mon added, sounding a little anxious whilst I made my final judgement.

"I think the black ones are the pair to go for," I said, swayed towards them by the fact that Mon would be taking her trainers as well and therefore could go for the fancier option over the more practical one in her footwear choices.

"Thank you so much, babe," she said, sounding more relaxed again.

I started searching through the wardrobe for a tie, until Mon called my name. "If you're looking for a tie," she started to say as I turned round to give her my full attention, "there's one over there on at the dressing table that's been lying there for a while."

I followed Mon's gaze and saw the tie that she had meant. I picked it up, using the mirror to assist me as I put it on. I turned back to Mon after smoothing down my shirt and jacket to make sure that it was looking appropriately neat and smart, and focused on her full outfit in its entirety. She looked ethereal and stunning and I couldn't help but feel as if I was in the presence of some supernatural world and was being blessed by a real-life angel.

Mon seemed to notice my awe because she said, "I've been keeping all of what I'm wearing now for an occasion like this, and I wasn't sure how much longer I could wait before just needing to show you."

"Well," I said, feeling massively overwhelmed by happiness and love towards my unbelievably angelic wife, Monica, "Good thing I had this planned, then."

Mon chuckled happily. "Yes," she agreed, pulling me into a hug and kissing me again.

Once we had broken apart and Mon was searching for a jacket to wear over her dress for the boat and travelling, I looked down at my watch. If we wanted to get to the restaurant on time, we were going to have to be ready to leave in the next five minutes. "Hey Mon," I said.

"Yeah?" she replied, looking up from where she had been searching for a jacket.

"We've got to leave in the next five minutes if we want to make it to the restaurant on time," I said, trying to keep the panic that was starting to edge its way into my tone out.

"I'm almost ready so that's fine with me," Mon said, resuming her jacket search in our wardrobe. In the end, she decided on a black oversized cardigan. I looked once more in the mirror, before smoothing down my suit jacket once more. I decided that I would wear my work shoes, but take an old pair of sneakers for the boat.

I walked out of the bedroom to go to the kitchen to get a carrier bag for my sneakers on the way to getting them from the pile of shoes near the front door of the house. Once I had shoved my sneakers in the bag, I started to put on my work shoes as I waited for Mon to join me. Just as I had finished, she came down stairs and I moved off of the bottom step to allow room for her to sort her shoes.

Once both of us were ready, I opened the door and locked it as Mon walked to the car and called shotgun. I unlocked the car using my key once I had locked the house door, and joined Mon in the driver's seat. Mon asked me for the postcode of the restaurant so we could use her phone's GPS to help us get there without ending up lost, and she set the phone up ready to go in the phone holder on the car dashboard so I could focus on safely reversing out of our garage.

A/N: Apologies that this chapter is so short, I just didn't have an awful lot more to say for this one, but the next chapter will be a continuation from this one from Monica's POV. As always, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!


	12. Chapter 12

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!

Chapter 12 – Monica

"This really is one of the best ideas you have ever come up with," I said, looking Chandler in the eye as I sipped my glass of complementary prosecco that the restaurant had gifted us upon arrival.

"You're so welcome, Mon," he replied, blue eyes shining with happiness as they looked back at me.

We were sitting at our table in the restaurant, and for the first time in way too long I was feeling completely relaxed and happy opposite the true love of my life. I was particularly touched by the gesture because he must have been planning this ever since the news about Mom and the fact that he knew that I needed some kind of escape meant more to me than I ever would be able to fully express to him. Everything that had been going on finally seemed to melt away the minute I looked around from where we sitting, with the soft glow of the city lights over the Hudson River to the many other couples talking around us.

"Are you guys ready to order yet?" I hear a waitress say as Chan and I both look up to see her standing by the table.

"I'd like the tomato and mozzarella pasta with the side salad," I said, passing my menu into the waitress's outstretched hand.

"I'll have the same," Chandler says, passing me his menu to give to the waitress, who is writing down our order with my menu tucked under her other arm.

"Will that be anything else?" the waitress asks us, clearly wanting to move onto the next couple to serve as I knew that the restaurant was particularly busy.

"No thanks," Chandler answers with a smile. He turns back to me once the waitress has gone. "The skyline's going to look so beautiful when we're on the boat later," he said.

I nodded happily, smiling back at him. "New York is the prettiest at night," I added, gazing out at the view of the Hudson River from our table again.

"I hope the twins are doing okay," Chandler said, taking me a little off guard at first by such a sudden change in subject.

"Same," I said, still feeling a little flustered. "I'm sure they're enjoying their time with Pheebs and Mike," I add, realising with a pang of sadness that I was starting to miss them.

"I'm sure they are too," Chandler said, squeezing my hand gently from across the table, as if he noticed that I was starting to feel a little sad. As if to confirm my suspicions, he smiled at me when I met his gaze.

We sat in silence, just savouring the moment of peace together until the waitress came with our food. Both of us were caught off guard, but quickly composed ourselves.

"This looks so good," I said, once the waitress had left, gazing lovingly down at the delicious-looking pasta that was now sat in front of me.

"That's high praise coming from the manager of a restaurant herself," Chandler grinned playfully.

I flashed Chandler a look that was halfway between amusement and 'are you for real', and started eating. The pasta ended up being every bit as good as it looked, and I was truly sad to see the empty plate as I walked to the restaurant restroom to neaten up a little before the boat ride.

Luckily there was no one in the restroom at the same time as me, so I could reapply my lipstick and splash some water on my face without having to risk feeling awkward around the other people around me. Feeling suitably refreshed, I walked back out to join Chandler at our table.

"Where did you say that we had to meet for the boat again?" I asked, shoving my arm in the sleeve of my jacket before repeating it with the other.

"Down the stairs down off of the balcony seating area," Chandler replied, as we both started walking to the door.

When we were only a few metres away from the entrance to the restaurant, it suddenly occurred to me that I couldn't remember whether we had paid for the food yet. "Did you pay for our meal?" I asked Chandler, who was already pushing open the door for me.

"I did it whilst you were out," he said, shutting the door behind us as we both walked out.

My hand found Chandler's as we weaved through the tables and down the stairs, the cold evening air washing over us. I was suddenly very glad for my faux suede jacket as I was sure I would freeze to death without it.

We weren't the only couple waiting to go on the boat ride as became apparent when we reached the side of the river where a small harbour stood, with a single small boat tethered up that I assumed was some kind of emergency vessel.

After a couple of minutes of chandler and I standing alone, I saw a couple walking over in our direction. Unsure as to whether they wanted us specifically, I decided to stay put and go from there.

"Hey!" the woman said cheerfully, with an accent that I recognised distinctively as one from Boston.

"Hi," I said, a little surprised by the woman's enthusiasm, but only positively.

"Where are you guys from?" the woman asked, both her and her husband now looking Chandler and I up and down. I wasn't put off by this gesture, as they seemed friendly enough so it seemed no more than sheer curiosity over who they were talking to than anything else.

"Westchester County," I said. "I'm Monica Geller-Bing by the way, and this is my husband Chandler," I added, gesturing to Chandler, who had assumed his usual awkward posture that he saved for the times that I forced him to make polite conversation with strangers. If anything, it was so much better than having him make jokes that were going to scare new people off, as much as I myself appreciated them.

The woman looked at her husband as if to check whether he wanted a chance to speak, but decided to answer for both of them again. "I'm Eleanor Davies, and this my husband Matt," she said, as I realised that the joyful edge to her voice must be normally how she spoke. "We recently moved to Manhattan from Boston," she added.

"That's so cool," I replied, whilst trying to inspire some kind of conversation from Chandler, as I realised Eleanor and Matt must think he was being terribly rude. "How are you finding it here?"

Matt answered this time. "We love the city feel," he answered, but I couldn't shake the feeling that his response was the kind that you rehearsed with your other half before going out, just in case you happened to need to talk. If anything, it hit me that he and Chandler might have much more in common that I would've ever presumed.

"We spent our early adult years here and we loved it too," I said, trying to worry less about Chandler coming across as rude and more on the conversation.

"Do you guys have kids then?" Eleanor asked, as if she had thought that this would be the most plausible reason for the fact that we moved out of the city, possibly even based off of her and Matt's own motives.

"Two teenage twins," I said, another pang of sadness hitting me as I was reminded of how much I was starting to miss them.

We must have been talking for quite a while, because next thing I knew was that we were being ushered onto the boat. As if it was an unspoken rule, I immediately started to look for four free seats so Chandler and I could sit with Eleanor and Matt, as I was starting to like them, even if tonight was the first and last time that we ended up seeing them.

"Forgive me for asking, especially since we've just met," Eleanor said, as she shuffled in her seat beside me, "but was giving birth and looking after twins as difficult as it sounds?"

I shuffled uncomfortably at this, mainly because the twins weren't biologically ours, and I was nervous of what people would think of the fact that we couldn't have our own. I was about to shoot a quick look as a plea for help from Chandler, when I remembered that Eleanor was waiting for my response and felt her eyes on me.

"It has its ups and downs," I ended up deciding on saying, as it was suitably vague so I wouldn't have to go into details. I hoped that Eleanor wouldn't try and probe further from this deliberate gesture.

"Matt and I have been trying for over 6 months now," Eleanor said, sounding suddenly considerably more reserved than what I had become used to, even in the 45 minutes of knowing her.

It suddenly clicked what she had most likely been trying to get at, and I suddenly felt really bad for the both of them. Chandler and I had eventually decided that taking the small chance that we might be able to conceive a baby together was far outweighed by the much higher possibility of miscarrying, which would cause more emotional damage than I was willing to test our relationship for.

"I hope you guys manage to have success with it," I said, hoping that this gesture towards the situation would be appreciated, even though I knew that it would take much more than what I could offer to make any real difference to the situation.

"Thanks," Eleanor said, sounding understandably even more subdued. I could tell that she was reliving whatever pain that she had felt during the situation just by the fact that it had been alluded to in passing conversation, and even though we had just met, I wanted nothing more than to be able to comfort her.

Matt and Eleanor held each other's hands even though they were sitting opposite each other as if to be a gesture of comfort towards Eleanor. I eyed Chandler, who seemed to be sharing my feelings of happiness and awkwardness towards the couple, and felt less horrible about not being able to do anything for them as I had reconnected with what else was going on around us.

A/N: I felt like this was a good place to end it, so let me know if you are interested in maybe seeing more of Eleanor and Matt, or if you think that they are good as one-off characters. Also, to the person who wanted Chandler and Mon to have kids of their own, I'm sorry. I'm also sorry for how randomly I upload now, I just haven't been motivated to write. Finally, this just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!


	13. Chapter 13

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!

Chapter 13 – Jack

"Can someone get the door?" Phoebe called from the kitchen.

Erica and I were both getting ready to leave the house to go with Mom and Dad to visit our Grandmother. Erica was still getting the very last of her things that she would need for the day together, but I was already completely ready.

No one came to the door and the knocking persisted, so I opened the door as it was probably going to be Mom and Dad and I knew Mom in particular didn't like to be kept waiting.

"Hey, Jack," Mom said when she saw me. "Good to see you're ready." She added, sounding pleased.

I beckoned for them to come in rather than having to stand in the doorway. After a couple of minutes of waiting and hugging, Phoebe emerged from down the hallway.

"Monica! Chandler!" she exclaimed cheerfully. "Good to see you!"

She hugged Mom and Dad in turn, and they started talking whilst we waited for Erica. We didn't have to wait too long as soon enough Erica was at the foot of the stairs being hugged by Mom and Dad. She got her jacket from the coat rack, and then we joined Mom and dad outside to get into the car.

I sat in the back with Erica, and we exchanged looks because I could tell that we both still felt a little guilty about how we had acted towards Mom and Dad when we last properly saw them. I had certainly realised that at the end of the day, our birth mother had done basically nothing in the care of us and it had all been Mom and Dad, so we had no real reason to hold a grudge against them, especially since they seemed genuinely apologetic for keeping the fact that we were adopted a secret for so long.

I decided to say nothing more about the situation to either Mom or Dad because I figured the fact that they hadn't mentioned anything about it so far meant that they just wanted to move on from what had happened, as Erica and I did.

"Mom and Dad don't know that you guys are coming with us today," Mom said suddenly, as the car started down the highway. "So it will be a surprise for them."

"That's such a great idea," Erica said, and I felt the same way but at the same time my heart was breaking because I knew that this visit could easily be the last time that our Grandmother saw us.

"I know!" Mom said, sounding very proud of herself.

I found myself being desperate for one of Dad's terrible jokes to lighten the solemn but uncomfortably awkward atmosphere that followed Mom's comment.

No one seemed to want to talk about the possibility that this would be the last time that we would see Erica and I's Grandparents together, and quite honestly, I didn't feel like it was necessarily a bad thing. I guess I was just worried that the fact that we weren't talking about it now would make the reality of it harder to deal with.

"How has staying with Phoebe and Mike been for you guys?" Mom asked, breaking the silence as she clearly wanted to try and make conversation with us.

"So much fun," I answered. "I've been teaching Chris some really cool video games, and now he's starting to rival me with how good he's getting."

"I should've known that you'd find someone better than me," Dad said, and it was hard for me to try and keep a straight face at his comment.

"Hope you'll find it in your heart to forgive me, Dad," I replied, deliberately avoiding making eye contact with Erica, who was cracking up with laughter at our conversation.

"Oh, all right then!" he said, attempting to sound annoyed at being defeated, but the fact that he was finding the whole conversation soon overpowered as he too dissolved into fits of laughter.

I could tell that even Mom herself was struggling not to laugh at this point, and stay focused on driving safely. I realised that I had missed moments like this far more than I had realised whilst staying with Phoebe and Mike, and that Dad's sense of humour really was unlike anyone else's.

The rest of the journey was very much the same and really reminded me of just why and how much I loved Mom and Dad. However, as we got closer to the hospital, it was like a switch flicked and everyone was reminded of how serious the situation was and what this visit represented and the potential implications of it, despite how much we may try in vain to play it down.

The uncomfortable and sombre silence had returned.

As the car backed up into the hospital parking lot, I felt my legs turn to lead weights, as if they were so confused between whether I should run away or stay and face everything face on that they were sinking fast into quicksand.

"I guess we'd better go in," Mom said, opening the car door after the stopped the car's ignition. She was voicing how we all felt.

I looked at Erica, and she gently squeezed my hand as reassurance that we would get through this together. I was the first to get out of the car followed by Erica, and then Mom and Dad. We waited a couple of seconds whilst Mom locked the car with her keys and then, with my hand in Erica's grip for emotional support, the four of us made our way to the ICU reception.

Mom and Dad did the talking at the reception desk, and we both followed them down the ICU ward until we came to a door that Mom and Dad seemed to think was Mom's.

Mom opened the door first, and the rest of us followed her in. I saw that our Grandfather was sitting on our Grandmother's bed, and their faces lit up when they realised that it wasn't just Mom and Dad who had come to visit.

"This is a nice surprise!" our Grandfather exclaimed, as if he couldn't quite explain how happy he was to see us in the moment. "Isn't it?" he added, looking at our Grandmother for her reaction.

"Yes it is, Jack, darling," our Grandmother said, smiling weakly as if that was all she had enough energy for, but it still meant the world to me regardless.

Our Grandfather stood up, most likely to come and hug us. He stopped in front of me first, and enveloped me in a massive, warm hug. For a moment, I felt transported to right back when I was a much younger kid, and as much as I realised I was yearning for that simpler time, the feeling left as quick as it had arrived.

I looked over at Mom, who seemed half way between being happy at the situation and breaking down crying. She turned to Dad, who seemed to have sensed this, and offered her hug that she fell into without hesitation.

After being slightly unsure whether I should take up a seat on the bed or keep standing, both Erica and I were invited to sit down as our Grandmother patted the duvet in front of her and said, "Feel free to make yourselves comfortable."

Mom and Dad took up chairs that had been stacked in the corner of the room as there wasn't enough space on the bed for everyone. Our Grandfather took the third and final one.

Just as a proper conversation had started between Mom and Dad and Erica and I's grandparents, the door opened and a lady who I immediately assumed was a nurse walked in. "This is nice to see that Judy has so many guests," she said.

Our Grandfather started talking as the nurse went about whatever she came in to do. "This is my daughter and her husband," he explained to the nurse. "And," he added, gesturing towards Erica and I, "these two are their kids."

The nurse smiled in my direction, and I tried to smile back, despite feeling from the right mood for it to be sincere. Mom and Dad made conversation with the nurse, mainly about the state of our Grandmother's health and treatments.

"Do you kids want a drink?" our Grandfather said, coming back over to where Erica and I were sitting on the bed. "There's a café onsite."

I looked at Erica, and she shrugged back. "Sure," I said, making the decision for the both of us.

We followed our Grandfather out of the room, and back down the ward. We went down quite a few corridors and dodged quite a few patients in various states of ill health, until we finally came to a part of the hospital that looked like it was most likely a café.

We were lead into it through the door, and straight to a counter that was backed with various different menus offering the food and drinks that were available to buy. The actual restaurant section of the café was surprisingly busy, and so our Grandfather asked us for our drink orders before instructing us to find free seats for the three of us.

Whilst we waited to be joined at the table that we ended up choosing, I took the chance to talk to Erica about how I was feeling about the whole situation.

"I should be so happy to be here and see just how much our grandparents mean to each other," I started saying, "but at the same time, it's hard not to think about what the future might look like and how they might not have each other for much longer to lean on like that."

"I know exactly what you mean," Erica said, looking me in the eye to show that she truly did understand how I was feeling. "I think Mom and Dad get it too."

"If it's hardest on anyone, it must be Mom," I said. "Just because I couldn't imagine how I would feel if it was Mom herself we were talking about, so Mom must be genuinely distraught and have no idea what to do or how she should feel."

"I know," Erica said, sounding suddenly much quieter, as if she was embodying how helpless but lost that I felt by the situation.

Just as I was trying to figure how best to reply, our Grandfather came back over, carrying a tray laden with our drinks. I passed Erica her hot chocolate and starting drinking my regular coffee after adding a couple of sachets of milk and stirring it with one of the mixing sticks.

"How have things been for the both of you recently?" our Grandfather asked. I shot a look at Erica, unsure whether I should say like a summary of what things had been like or tell him about everything, including the adoption thing. Erica gave me a look that I understood to be code for 'tell him the short and sweet version or I'll kill you before Mom and Dad can'.

"Pretty decent, especially with everything that's going on," I answered, feeling both grateful that I didn't have to bring up the adoption saga but also guilt because I wasn't being honest, and I knew that our Grandfather just wants to look out for us.

"That's so good to hear," he replied, looking as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. I realised, slightly delayed, that he probably had been worrying about how Erica and I had been taking the news of his wife's illness as well as how it had been affecting Mom and Dad. "How has school been?" he added.

Erica answered this time. "School's been good, but I'm glad for this break even though it's short because the work is starting to get a little intense since we have finals soon," she said.

"I remember my first few days of high school," our Grandfather said. "They were wild, to say the least, but so fun."

I laughed politely, mostly out of shock. I was surprised to hear that anyone would find high school fun, because I certainly didn't, despite generally enjoying the subjects I had taken. But I guess the fact that there was a massive time difference between from when Erica and I were at high school and when our Grandfather had been, and perhaps it had been more fun when he was a student.

We talked more until the three of us had all finished our drinks, and then started making our way back to the ward.

Mom and Dad were still talking with our Grandmother, whilst a nurse worked around them. From the fact that Mom's expression lit up when she saw that we were back, I could tell that she had probably been worrying about how we were feeling about the visit and just generally wanted to make sure that we were okay.

I walked over to her and hugged her. She buried my head in her hair as she hugged me, and I felt something wet suddenly fall onto my shoulder. I looked up at her and saw that her eyes were shining. I felt really upset in that moment because it kind of hit me doubly hard again just how hard and difficult the situation that we had all been thrust into was.

Mom turned her attention to Erica after gently squeezing my hand as if trying to reassure me, when I knew that she was the one who needed reassuring right now. I knew only Dad could really give that to her, but I wondered if this situation was even something that Dad couldn't fix. I realised the best thing I could do was attempt to distract myself in this moment, so I went over to the bed to join my grandparents and Dad in conversation.

A/N: Hey guys, I hope you won't mind the more emotional ending to this chapter but this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!


	14. Chapter 14

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!

Chapter 14 – Erica

Jack eyed me nervously as we both sat, watching Mom and Dad as they sat on the edge of our Grandmother's bed.

Clearly the reality of the whole situation with our Grandparents was starting to really get Mom, and as much as both Jack and I wanted to be able to do something to help her, I knew that we both weren't able to and so we were just sitting here awkwardly, feeling worse and worse with every second.

"I think there are some board games somewhere," our Grandfather said, standing up and looking through a shelf in a small bookcase that I hadn't noticed before. "What do you guys wanna play?"

Realising that he was talking to Jack and I, I looked back at Jack, who just shrugged.

"Scrabble?" our Grandfather asked, looking around for a second to get our reactions, whilst he also tried to get Scrabble out from the pile of board games without accidentally dislodging the whole stack.

I nodded. Jack and I tried to make ourselves comfortable on the floor of the ward, as there was nowhere else that we would easily be able to play it. Our Grandfather joined us on the floor, and Jack and I started helping set up the game.

I realised that we had a pad of paper to keep scores on that came with the game, but didn't have a pen or anything else that we could use to write on it with. I ended up searching through the small handbag that I had bought along with me, and finding a random spare pen in there.

"Here you go," I said to Jack, who had been appointed as the designated score keeper.

"Cheers," Jack said, taking the pen from me and starting to write out names on the paper.

The first time, we played best of 5 turns, and I ended up winning, much to Jack's frustration and our Grandfather's amusement.

Our Grandfather was still laughing hard when Mom looked over and started walking towards us, clearly wanting to see what was going on.

She stood just observing for a couple of seconds, and then sat down in a spare space in what had become our little circle.

"Who's won?" she asked, as she shuffled around slightly, clearly still trying to get comfortable on the cold, hard, considerably uncomfortable floors of the ward.

"I did," I said, allowing the fact that I was proud to edge into my tone. I just couldn't resist the chance to rub it in Jack's face again, even if it was simply just saying that it had happened.

"Well done, Erica!" Mom said, hugging me gently. "I'll thrash you all!" she said, the family's competitive streak igniting in her and shining brightly in her tone of voice.

"All right then!" Jack said, clearly wanting a chance to get back at me and also because none of us could resist a competition, and Mom knew that.

We played best of 5 rounds again, which was pretty intense as having three equally competitive people like Mom, Jack and I was surprisingly fun but exhausting at the same time. Mom ended up coming on top, much to both Jack and I's frustration.

"I call child abuse!" I exclaimed, sending our Grandfather into yet another fit of laughter.

I looked to Jack for support, but he was silently fuming so much that I knew he would be more of a hindrance to me than any kind of help.

"Good luck with that," Mom replied to me, attempting to still sound serious with me but the fact that she was starting to find the whole situation absolutely hilarious took over, and so she dissolved into fits of laughter.

I looked away towards where my Grandmother and Dad were talking in an attempt to fight the urge to laugh myself, but quickly realised that all my attempts were futile and just started laughing, enjoying the moment with the others.

We laughed until we were all crying, and then slowly managed to attempt to regain composure. I had to avoid looking at Jack or my Grandfather because I knew that one look at them and I'd be gone again, as they were certainly struggling the most to stop themselves.

It got so bad that even Dad walked over, clearly now wanting to know what the hell was going on and check that we all weren't having some kind of weird seizure or something.

"What the hell have I missed?" Dad asked, sounding as confused and as amused as I had expected his reaction to be.

At first none of us were quite sure how to answer, fearing that if we tried to talk, that we would just end up dissolving into laughter again after all the effort it had taken to regain any kind of composure.

I ended up being the one who answered. "Just a game of Scrabble that ended up in random fists of laughter," I said, trying to sound as calm and indifferent as possible so that any urge to break into laughter again wouldn't take over.

"Sounds…riveting," Dad replied, still sounding as confused about it as he was when he first came over.

"It was!" our Grandfather added, chuckling slightly.

He seemed to realise what he had done as just then I caught one look at him and felt myself start to laugh uncontrollably again. This time everyone went down with me, as our Grandmother and one of her nurses looked on, clearly unsure whether they should comment on the situation or not.

"Looks like someone's having a bit of fun," the nurse said, as she looked up from where she had been sorting out some laundry at our Grandmother's bedside table and bookcase.

Again, I happened to be the only one with even a shred of dignity, and so I took it upon myself to answer. "Tell me about it," I said, looking around at the others in amusement, as they all struggled.

"It's nice to see Judy with this much company," the nurse added, sounding genuinely happy. "Too many of our patients don't have as much of a big and supportive family around them, and so it's just so nice to see the few who do."

Mom and Dad both smiled at her, and then at Erica and I's Grandparents.

"It's just part of being a family," Mom said, the small smile that had appeared quickly disappearing, as if that comment had been enough to spark being painfully reminded of the situation we were here for in the first place.

The nurse gave Mom a sympathetic look, still seemingly oblivious to the implications of her comment.

I saw Dad gently squeeze Mom's hand, as if he had realised what had happened and wanted to remind her of how he wasn't going to leave her especially during this time and that she just wasn't going to suffer this alone. Even though I felt like this should be more of a happier romantic moment, it still painfully tugged on my heartstrings.

A/N: Hey guys, I hope this isn't too short a chapter for you guys, I just couldn't think of anything else to say that wouldn't just be running on for the sake of writing something. Secondly, I just want to remind people that I will happily take constructive criticism so please don't hesitate to share it. Again, this is just me giving you the usual reminder for reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!


	15. Chapter 15

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!

Chapter 15 – Monica

"We really should go," I said, looking awkwardly down at my phone screen.

Chandler was still talking with Mom and dad and twins, currently completely oblivious to me. Honestly it wasn't that I hadn't enjoyed the visit and was getting sick of it, it was just that I knew Phoebe was expecting the twins back to eat Thanksgiving dinner with her and Mike's family and didn't want to be late getting to theirs.

After a few minutes of uncomfortably sitting observing the conversation, I leaned forward to tap Chandler on the shoulder.

"Yes, babe," he said as he turned around, sounding a little surprised.

"We really should get going if we want to get the twins back to Phoebe's on time," I said, starting to overthink over the fact that Mom and Dad might see me saying this as trying to leave as soon as possible because I didn't want to be here or something.

"I hope we aren't keeping you," Dad said, with sincere concern in his voice.

"You aren't, you aren't," I said, feeling flustered as I was desperate for them not to feel that way.

"Good, good," Dad said, sounding more cheerful again.

"It was really nice of both of you to have us come visit," Chandler said, as I shot him a grateful glance for taking over the situation for me.

"It's always a pleasure," Dad said, smiling brightly. "And I know Judy appreciates it," he added, squeezing Mom's hand firmly but lovingly.

Mom smiled at me and then at Chandler and the kids. Both Jack and Erica stood up and hugged her and Dad in turn, and then it was my turn. Mom insisted from having a hug from Chandler even though I could tell that he really didn't want it, but luckily Dad settled for his usual handshake and friendly slap on the back.

I started ushering everyone towards the ward room door, as a nurse continued to work around Mom.

As we walked down the main ward, my hand found Chandler's and was comforted by his firm but reassuring grip. The twins both hung behind us, bringing up the rear as we navigated our way back to the parking lot, narrowly dodging various gurneys and wheelchairs as we walked.

When we finally reached the parking lot, Chandler turned to me and looked me in the eyes before we walked across the crosswalk to the main block of car parking spots.

"See, that wasn't too bad," he said, clearly referencing the conversations that we had had preceding the visit about how it would be a painful reminder of how Mom was getting closer and closer to death's door with every visit, but how Chandler had begrudgingly made me agree that making a visit to Mom before it was too late was better than never getting the chance to say a proper goodbye.

"I guess," I shrugged, leaning into Chandler for a couple of seconds, as he stroked my hair gently.

We broke apart after Chandler had planted a small kiss of my forehead, and walked to our car with the twins following closely. They both got into the back seats of the car obediently, with Chandler agreeing to drive the car as I still felt a little too dazed and emotionally strained to feel like I could safely control the car.

The journey was mostly in silence right up until we dropped off the twins.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Chandler asked, as we both got back into the car and he turned on the ignition.

"Yeah," I replied, shrugging and pulling my cardigan closer to me with one hand as I felt a sudden burst of cool air hit me from as I slammed the shotgun seat door shut.

"Come on, Mon," Chandler said, sounding almost amused. "You honestly expect me to believe you with that after knowing you for so long?"

I sighed, knowing had I had been completely caught out by him. "It's just with the whole visit…it's just a lot to handle all at once," I admitted, realising this whole situation was affecting me more than I seemed to be allowing myself to let on. I felt the carefully arranged mask slipping further, filling me with fear at the thought of there being nowhere else for me to hide.

"I know, I know," Chandler said, with a rare vulnerability that was comforting but unnerving at the same time, as I had always thought of Chandler as the strong one who would be able to get through so much and had barely thought about how many of my thoughts that we might actually share.

We didn't talk again until Chandler reversed the car into the garage, and we both got out. I sat on the bottom stair to tug my boots off and then hung my jacket up.

"What do you wanna do tonight?" Chandler asked, enveloping me into an impromptu but very welcome hug.

"I don't mind," I answered, feeling a much needed wave of comfort wash over me. "As long as it's with you," I added, looking into Chandler's eyes.

Neither of us wanted to break apart, but I ended up bringing up the conversation of getting some food and we both went into the kitchen to look through the takeout leaflets we had. I didn't feel like cooking as I was pretty exhausted after the events of the day, and there was no way that I was going to trust Chandler to cook.

I leafed through the selection of takeout menus, unsure whether to go for pizza or Chinese or something else.

"What do you fancy, babe?" I asked Chandler, hoping that he would help me decide.

"I'm thinking Chinese because it's been a while since the two of us had that," he replied, and I suddenly realised that we actually hadn't, and that it would be a nice change for us rather than our seemingly go-to choice of pizza at the moment.

I used my phone to call up the takeout place whilst Chandler left the room, presumably to set up a film or something in the living room.

When I had placed the order, I made my way out of the kitchen to the living room. Sure enough, Chandler was there, sitting on the couch in front of the TV, a film paused at the beginning, clearly waiting for me to join him.

"Which film is it?" I asked, not because I didn't trust Chandler to pick one I liked, but out of curiosity.

"Love Actually," Chandler replied, with a smug expression on his face as he knew it was one of my all-time favourites.

I snuggled underneath one of the couch blankets up beside Chandler as he pressed play on the TV remote.

We were only interrupted from the film when the doorbell rang for the takeout, which Chandler went to get.

I found myself desperately wishing that the situation in the film was Chandler and I's reality, but of course it wasn't. I looked at my phone screen, as it had been sitting beside Chandler and I on the couch, attached to wall by its charger.

I was shocked to see that it was already half eleven in the evening. "Are you tired enough to go up to bed yet?" I asked Chandler, yawning.

"We can go if you want," he said, getting up to put the DVD back into its case.

When he came back over, he scooped me up in his arms with the blanket off the couch and carried me upstairs to our bedroom in his firm but comforting grip.

After he had set me down on the duvet of my side of the bed, he lay down in bed beside me. I felt my hand involuntarily searching for his, and we gripped each other's hand gently as we stared up at the ceiling, trying desperately to soak up the peace of the moment.

A/N: I thought that moment was a nice place to leave it, so I hope Mondler fans enjoy this. Anyways, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!


	16. Chapter 16

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!

Chapter 16 – Chandler

Rrrrring! Rrrring!

I wake up to the sound of the home phone going off, which surprises me immediately, since most of time if people want to contact Monica or I, it's via our mobile phones.

I swing my legs round to the side of the bed and stuff my feet into my slippers, whilst also trying to be as quiet as possible so I don't wake Mon up, but knowing that whoever is calling will have to end up leaving a message if I don't get to the phone soon.

Grabbing my dressing gown off its hook on the bedroom door as I go to then put on whilst I'm walking down the stairs, I descend as quietly as possible down the stairs. The closer I get to the foot of the staircase, the louder and more urgent the telephone ringing sounds.

I make a dash for the kitchen where the phone is kept, and thank God for the fact that it is a handset and not a phone that is attached to a cord. I press the button green light up telephone symbol on to accept the call, and make myself comfy on the kitchen diner couch.

"Hello, Chandler Geller-Bing speaking," I say, desperately hoping whoever is on the other end of the call can't tell that I've just woken up from my voice. I cough slightly, clearing my throat as a preventative measure.

"Hey, Chandler," the voice on the other end says, which I recognise immediately to be the voice of Ross Geller.

"Hey buddy," I say, relieved that it's him and now feeling a little more comfortable and relaxed as a result. "Everything going all right?"

There's a delay of what feels like forever before Ross's answer, followed by a cough, which starts to set me on edge in case the answer isn't going to be one I want to hear or certainly one that isn't positive. I fight the urge to pace out of sheer nervousness, and instead just try and focus on patiently waiting for Ross's reply.

"I don't quite know how best to put this," Ross finally says, his voice considerably shakier and hesitant than I had been hoping for.

"Go on," I prompted, despite feeling my heart drop. I didn't want to hear the next part of what Ross had to say at all.

"I'll just cut to the chase," Ross said, sounding as if he was trying to stall as much as possible purposely. "Long story short, Judy died in the early hours of this morning."

I heard Ross clear his throat again, though this time I suspected it was to cover a voice crack.

"Do they…Do they…" I said, trying to find the words to complete the question, despite the fact that it felt like my brain had suddenly turned into mush. "Do they know what happened?" I finally managed to say, though I feared if I attempted to say anything more, it would be damn near impossible to get the words out of my mouth in a way that made even the slightest bit of sense.

"All they know is that her vitals took a sudden hit, and started getting worse after that," Ross said, as if it seriously pained him to attempt to squeeze the words out of his mouth. He cleared his throat again before continuing on. "They had her on life support for a while, but Dad made the decision to turn it off after it became pretty obvious that she was just slipping through our fingers, and that keeping her alive and in pain for any more time was going to be unnecessary torture towards her, and neither Dad nor I wanted it on our conscience that we had made Mom suffer any more than what was already out of our control."

I take a deep breath out, unaware that I had been holding it all while Ross had been talking, yet I still felt like all the air had been knocked out of me. If this was my reaction to the news, I couldn't even bear to think about how it might affect Mon.

There was an awkward silence between the two of us at this point, as I could tell that both of us were thinking over how we would break the news to Mon, despite neither of us actually wanting to be the one to do it. She did obviously have a right to know, but just neither of us wanted to face the reality of that right now, as it would surely and completely break her heart.

"Thanks for letting me know," I said, unable to bear the silence anymore, feeling worse than I had felt in a while, and feeling far from anything even close to being thankful.

Ross and I said goodbye to each other and I put the phone back in its stand. I took a quick look at the clock in the kitchen, which told me that it was quarter past eight, which meant Mon was sure to be up soon.

I walked over to the cafetiere, intending on bringing coffee up to her in bed. Once I had successfully made two mugs of coffee for the two of us, I started to make my way back up to the bedroom, through my legs felt like they were made out of lead and getting heavier and heavier each time I took a step forward.

Fortunately, I made it to the bedroom without spilling anything. Mon was already sitting up in bed when I walked in, and I saw her eyes light up at the sight of coffee.

"Thank you so much," Mon said, taking her mug before doing a double take. "What's up?" she asked, and I realise that there must have been a chink in my armour somewhere and she's picked up on it, like she always had had a habit of doing.

"Nothing's wrong, babe," I said, hoping that I'm faking it well enough for her to believe me.

I can tell from Mon's expression that she doesn't believe me, but she seems to take the hint that I don't want to talk about it, and nothing she could do will make me tell her for the time being at least.

Fortunately, she changes the subject and asks me, "You have work today as usual, right?"

I nod, getting up off the bed and going over to our wardrobe to find my work clothes for the day.

"What do you want for breakfast?" Mon asks, getting out of bed herself. "I'll do anything, within reason of course."

"I really don't mind," I answer, feeling a pang of guilt for how dismissive I must sound, but honestly it's only because my head feels like it's on a completely different planet and I'm not in a place where I can think too much about reality.

"I'll surprise you, then," Mon said, grabbing her dressing gown presumably to go downstairs, mug of coffee still in her hand.

Once I was sure that Mon had got downstairs, I continued attempting to get changed for the day, although it was proving difficult since I was just constantly replaying the phone call in my mind, leaving no thinking space for the many responsibilities that I still had to do before leaving for work and during the rest of the day.

I simply couldn't decide which felt worse: knowing that I would have to find a way to break the news of her mother's death to her as much as I was desperate to put it off and almost place a protective shield between the situation and her, or the shock that I was still stuck deep in myself as a result of the call.

Regardless, I managed to force myself to trudge through my usual everyday routine, and readjust the brave face that I put on for Mon and would probably keep on for the remainder of the day.

Mon had ended up cooking pancakes and bacon for our breakfast, which I tried pretty desperately to eat, despite feeling like my stomach was definitely having none of it. Fortunately, I managed to finish the whole plate of it that I had been given and stayed around to help Mon put the dishes in the dishwasher and set off the morning load.

Afterwards, I went back upstairs to finish getting ready for work. I figured that I would have time later to consider how to break the news about Judy to Mon, and so I ended up pushing that thought to the back of my mind for the moment, just so I could actually make it to work without taking the risk of somehow ending up being a hazard to myself as a result of being distracted.

A/N: So I'm super proud of this chapter, as everyone who has proof-read it for me says that I have mastered the effect I was going for, so I hope you guys are able to enjoy this without hating me too much! As always, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!


	17. Chapter 17

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!

Chapter 17 – Monica

"Do you have everything you need for work today?" I asked Chandler, as I watched him potter around the kitchen, eventually deciding on filling his travel flask with coffee from the cafetiere as per usual.

"Yes," he said, as I came up behind him and draped my arm around his shoulders.

I let go of him so he could take his flask and put it with his briefcase. He then turned back to me and said, "I've gotta go or I'll be late, so see you later, Mon."

He walked towards me, and I fell into his arms gratefully for a hug. It felt like ages until we broke apart again, as Chandler wriggled from out of my grip first, announcing that he really needed to get a move on to ensure that he would be at work on time.

Usually, I would also have work, but tomorrow is a day off for me, since I wasn't needed for anything specific, so there would be no point in me being there if all I would end up doing is sitting around without a task to busy myself with.

Whilst Chandler was at work, I planned to take the opportunity to get some housework done whilst I had the house completely free to myself, so it was looking like it was going to be a highly productive day.

"Have a good day," I called after Chandler, who was making his way towards the car to begin his journey to work.

I shut the door, and then made my way back into the kitchen. On impulse, I realised that I was desperate for coffee and had forgotten to make myself some earlier when Chandler had been getting ready to go out.

I set up the cafetiere and reached for a mug from the cupboard above. Just as I was about to sit down with the coffee as it had been poured, I heard the home phone.

I thought it was a little odd that whoever was calling me hadn't decided to contact me through my mobile, which was the usual and most reliable way of getting in touch with me. Nevertheless, I still reached for the handset and clicked the button to answer the call.

"Monica Geller-Bing speaking, who is this?" I said, sitting back down again with the handset resting up against my ear.

"It's Ross," the voice on the other end of the call said. "Your brother."

"Thanks for that unnecessary information," I said, and then immediately regretted it, as I felt like it had been unnecessarily harsh of me to say that when Ross had literally done nothing in the slightest bit antagonistic or just downright wrong.

It seemed that Ross wasn't in the mood to pick me up on my comment, though, as he continued on talking. "I've debated long and hard about how to tell you this, and I've come to the conclusion, that whatever way it does end up coming out, it's not going to be easy so I'll just go ahead and come clean," he says, confusing me and sending my heart racing at the same time.

I took a shaky breath in as I waited for him to start talking again. "Mom died in the early hours of this morning," he finally says, after what feels like hours.

I get a sudden wave of dizziness, and reach out for the table, forgetting that it's not the back of a chair and that I'm already sitting down.

"How come?" I say, my voice barely a squeak, as my throat feels like it's as dry as sandpaper despite the fact that I've been drinking coffee.

"Her vitals starting going downhill, and so they put her on life support to see whether it would assist her in making any kind of progress," Ross explained as I strained to listen through the foggy that haze had settled in my mind. "In the end, Dad and I decided that keeping her on life support was just making her suffer for even longer, and so they took her off it and she died peacefully soon after."

I so desperately wanted to say something to Ross, but it seemed the minute I tried to think of something vaguely fitting, my mind just blanked.

"Mon? You okay?" I heard Ross say after a while of silence, concern clear in his tone.

I was able to mumble yes, and hoped that Ross would take it as acceptable and not spend any more time worrying about me.

"Thanks for letting me know, I guess," I said, suddenly desperate to be alone.

"Take care of yourself, okay," Ross said, before he hung up.

I out the handset on the table and picked up my mug to finish the coffee. I took a sip and realised that it was stone cold, and then walked over to the sink to pour the rest of it down the drain.

I sat back down at the table, still feeling pretty dizzy. It just didn't feel like I was actually living in this reality. At the same time, I was desperate for someone that I could vent how I was feeling to, but Chandler, who would've been my first choice was obviously at work, and I wouldn't want to interrupt him, especially with such terrible news.

In the end, I just end up staying sat at the table, staring aimlessly into space.

A/N: Sorry again for the incredibly short chapter, but as usual, it was necessary. Nevertheless, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!


	18. Chapter 18

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!

Chapter 18 – Chandler

I pushed open the front door, car keys in hand, glad to finally be able to spend some quality time with Mon after being away from her all day. I still felt a little guilty and uncomfortable that Mon didn't know yet about her Mom, but I was hoping that there would be a time some point soon where it would be a good time to mention it.

I considered just dumping my jacket on the stairs, but then remembered how much Monica wouldn't appreciate that, so I hung it up as usual. Assuming that Mon would most likely be in the kitchen, I started making my way down the hallway to the kitchen door, and opened it.

Immediately, I could smell kitchen bleach and saw Mon, hunched over the counter as she scrubbed at the counter with her yellow gloves on.

"Hey, babe," I said, knowing that there was a chance she wouldn't hear me because she was so focussed on what she was doing.

As I had predicted, it took me actually walking over to the counter for Mon to notice I was there.

"Oh, hi," she said, still sounding distracted with an edge of something I couldn't quite tell, but I knew it wasn't good.

"How has your day been?" I added, feeling a little awkward as I tried desperately to make our usual conversation during this sort of time of day.

"Busy," Mon replied, in a clipped tone.

What had I said?

And then it hit me. What _hadn't_ I said? I thought, deliberately ignoring the irony of the statement.

"Look," I said, trying ignore the lump that formed in my throat, "I would've told you earlier."

"Then why didn't you?" Mon snapped, turning suddenly around to face me, expression radiating anger and hurt.

"Because…" I faltered, immediately regretting opening my mouth to speak. "I didn't want to hurt or stress you out any more than you already were," I said, although I was certain it didn't sound the way I'd intended it to.

"You did an absolutely wonderful job of doing that, then!" Mon hissed, the sarcasm throwing little knives at me as I stood there, in almost a complete daze.

"Take it out on Ross," I said, so angry now, but not only at Mom's attack, but at Ross for also indirectly putting me in this situation. He probably knew she was going to find out and then take it out me, too.

"Why the hell would I wanna do that?" Mon asked, either acting dumb or genuinely not following.

"Because he was the one who told me first," I said, matter-of-factly, a ripple of joy sparking in me as I saw Mon become livid with anger at Ross.

"Fucking cunt," she whispered icily under breath.

I couldn't say that I disagreed with her on that.

"Excuse me," Mon said, ripping off her Marigold gloves and dropping them onto the counter. She stalked over to where her mobile was, and unplugged it from the charger. " _I_ have a pathological liar to drop a gift of a reality check to!"

Whilst she had been talking, she had opened the hallway door, and shut it behind her once she had walked into it. I hoped that the argument was now going to be forgotten about, but knowing Mon, it was likely enough that she was just planning on continuing it once she had finished with Ross.

I sat down at the kitchen table, realising suddenly and kind of inappropriately given the situation, that I had a really strong craving for pizza, despite having had it far too much in the recent few days.

In the end, after I had searched through the pantry and the fridge in vain because there was nothing that was going to be easy or quick to eat for a snack, I just settled on a can of beer to tide me over for the moment.

Despite the fact that I couldn't hear exactly what was being said, I could hear Monica's tone clearly and had to stop myself from feeling a little bad for Ross, as he had still screwed me up and caused this situation to happen in the first place.

It was quite a while until Mon finally came back in, slamming the door after her so I hard I swore I could feel the floor vibrate ever so slightly from the impact afterwards.

"How was that?" I asked, really knowing full well what the answer would be.

"Surprisingly satisfying," Mon said, sounding pleased with herself. I felt a little uneasy at how happy she seemed to be whilst saying that, reminding me why she had become the manager of her job and also just how scary she can get when she's angry.

I laughed, feeling particularly glad and relieved that it hadn't been me who she'd been on the phone to. Compared to our argument before, it really did seem that Ross had got the worst of it; the full show of Monica's unforgivable wrath.

"I'm starving," Monica said, taking me off guard as I was on the edge, waiting for her to seize the chance to finish having a go at me.

"Me too," I said, feeling temporarily like the argument really may have been forgotten and put in the past now.

"What should we order in?" Mon asked me, again surprising me, because I assumed that she would want to start cooking more again, since all we had really been eating recently was takeaways.

"Wait," Mon said suddenly, and started typing something into her phone. "Be back in a minute or two," she said, phone already to her ear as she walked into the hallway, closing the door behind her again.

Whilst I was waiting for whatever she was doing, I decided to take the matter of what was going to be for dinner into my own hands, and searched up the name of our favourite Thai restaurant to start looking through the menu, partly to pass the time whilst I waited and partly to choose what I would want to order.

I had almost decided what I wanted when the door swung open and Mon walked in, starting to talk.

"The twins are being dropped off by Phoebe tonight," she announced, again taking me off guard by such a sudden statement.

"How come?" I asked, not of course because I didn't want them to, but genuinely after what made Mon want them back so badly at this precise moment.

"I guess after Mom and stuff, it's just good to keep family close," Mon answered, and then said what I had kind of been thinking. "I know I'm being paranoid, but give me a break!"

I nodded, even though I hadn't even been planning on passing judgement, because it was fair enough.

"So, did Pheebs give you a time when they would be here?" I asked, starting to think of the practicalities above all else.

"7.30, 8-ish," Mon replied. "Shall we sort food?"

"Yeah," I said, tapping my phone screen to pull up the tab with the order that I had begun creating.

I passed my phone to Mon, so she could select the food she wanted, and then I added a few extra dishes for the kids in case they hadn't yet had dinner, but could also become spares for lunches later in the week if need be. I then entered my card details in to pay, and then set my phone back on the table.

"What do you want to do whilst we wait?" I asked Mon, unsure what I could do to pass the time whilst we waited for food. It then hit me that Mon was likely to want to start getting the twins' bedrooms ready for when they got back.

As I had mentally predicted, Mon's answer was, "I'm going to remake the beds and just check that everything in Jack and Erica's rooms are good to go for them to be able to settle right back in when they get here later."

"Okay," I said, moving to sit on the sofa in front of TV as Mon walked out of the kitchen to go and sort the kids' bedrooms.

I switched on the TV with the remote, hoping that there would be something entertaining being shown, though fortunately we had a Netflix account as back-up.

As per usual, there was limited choice of decent shows on the TV programmes that actually interested me, and so I switched promptly to the Netflix app. I selected my avatar, and started scrolling through the programmes onscreen.

I scrolled though my 'currently watching' list, selecting Blackadder, which was by far one of my favourite shows ever written. It was cool how it was British, but the humour was really the best part of it, as it was so 'me'.

Another of my favourite films were 'The Life of Brian' and 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail', but Mon was very much not a fan of either, and so I had to take the opportunity to watch them whenever she was not there. Nevertheless, probably much to Monica's dismay if she ever found out, it hadn't stopped me from showing both films to Jack and Erica, who were already very much in love with them.

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!


	19. Chapter 19

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!

Chapter 19 – Erica

"I'll come check on you guys just to make sure that you don't need anything else that isn't already in the bedrooms," Mom said, as Dad helped Jack and I move our suitcases up the stairs to our bedrooms.

I was really glad to be back home, as I had definitely missed it and Mom and Dad much more than I had realised.

Once Dad and I had finally managed to successfully wrestle my suitcase up the stairs, I got straight to unpacking when I got into my bedroom, as it would make me feel more at home and Mom would appreciate me having reorganised everything.

Apparently no one had aired the room whilst I'd been gone, because there was a definite smell of stale air, so I threw open the windows even though it was dark out since it was around 8pm in the evening.

I had completely unpacked everything and was sitting on my bed on my phone when I heard a knock on the door that I knew must be Mom coming to check up on me.

"Come in," I said, hearing the lock in the door click open.

It was Mom. She came over and sat next to me on the bed, looking around the rooms, clearly pleased that I had already unpacked.

"I see you've already put everything away," she observed, her tone sounding pleased.

"Yeah," I nodded, feeling happy that I had Mom even just a little happier.

"Do you have everything you need?" she asked me, twirling a long strand of her hair round her finger as she spoke.

"I do," I answered.

"Okay, then I'll just leave and go check on Jack," she said, getting up from the bed to leave my room. She suddenly turned to look back round at me, as if she had forgotten to say something. "Oh, and either Dad or I will be up here with food at some point."

"Thank you so much, Mom, for everything you and Dad have done for us since we got back," I said, while smiling gently as I really hoped that she would see how grateful I was for being so welcoming towards us, even after the shitty way that both Jack and I had treated her as of recently.

"You're so welcome, Erica," she replied before shutting my bedroom door after she left, flashing me a quick smile to confirm that she had noticed and really appreciated my gratitude towards her and Dad.

I slid my MacBook under my arm as I lifted it up from the spot on my desk where it had been sat charging, and set it up on my bed ready for me to be able to watch Netflix. I grabbed my slippers from off the floor and shoved my feet into them. Afterwards, I swung my legs up onto the bed and sat with my legs crossed in front of the MacBook, leaning against a makeshift headrest I created with my pillows.

I pressed play on the episode of Gilmore Girls that I had just started, as I had found the show on Netflix whilst Jack and I had been at Phoebe's.

I had gotten through about three episodes when I heard a knock at the door.

"Come in," I said, as I paused the episode that I was currently watching.

It was Dad, carrying a tray of Chinese takeout.

"Thanks, Dad," I said, taking the tray from Dad and setting it down beside the MacBook.

"You're welcome," Dad said as he walked out of the room.

Once I had finished eating, I decided to check my phone. I opened Snapchat as I couldn't remember whether I had sent streaks, so I sent an extra one just in case.

Just as I was about to wipe out of Snapchat and tap on Instagram, a sudden notification flashed up on my screen. It was a text from Lara, which surprised me especially because of what she had said in the message.

I clicked on the message and the messaging app opened so I could read the full text, and then reply. The actual message was Lara asking if she could call me because she was in a situation that she really had to speak to someone about, as Ben couldn't help her and Emma was still out doing whatever she was doing. Her phone was also off.

I replied saying that I could call her yeah and that I was completely willing to help her as much as I could, but that I hoped it wasn't something really serious and that everyone was okay.

Just as I was pausing Netflix, Lara's caller ID flashed up on my screen and I accepted the call, shuffling my position on the bed slightly to get comfortable again.

"Hey, what's up?" I said, moving my phone up to my ear.

"Dad and Mom were arguing over our Grandmother, and then Mom suddenly fainted, so Dad called an ambulance and went to the hospital with her," Lara said, as my heart dropped. Aunt Rachel and Uncle Ross could've only been arguing over my Grandmother for one reason. Trying to push this thought out of my mind so I was able to hear the rest of what Lara had to say, she continued, "They've been gone for about two and half hours now, and Ben's home but he can't get in touch with Dad and Emma's phone is off, and no one is telling me what's going on and it's hella stressful and, like, starting to scare the shit out of me."

"Okay, okay," I said, feeling the weight of the situation dawn on me. My mind went blank as I tried to think of some kind of advice to give to her, knowing that I really wasn't likely to be the best one to do so. "Could you call the hospital directly or something to find out?"

"I'm only fourteen," Lara pointed out, as I mentally kicked myself for not remembering before offering what was literally a pointless solution.

"Ben's legal, though, right?" I said, a shred of faith restored within me at the realisation of it.

"Yeah, he's like 23 or something," Lara said.

"And he's Ross's son as well, so they're bound to give him some information," I said, feeling a little relieved.

"The only other person I can think of that they would speak to is Aunt Monica," Lara said, her tone sounding as if this was a last resort kind of suggestion. "I just didn't want to unnecessarily stress her out or anyone else because I know that she already probably has a lot on her mind right now with her Mom and an entire family to support," she added, confirming my suspicions.

"Fair enough," I said, desperately trying to rack my brain for any other shreds of advice that I could offer.

"Try getting Ben to call the hospital and call me back if that doesn't work," I added, hoping for her and Ben's sake and the rest of the family's sake that Rachel had just passed out from a headache or something and that it was no more serious than that.

Putting down my phone, I pressed play on Netflix and tried to get back into the story. After about five minutes of only thinking about situation with my Grandmother, I decided it was futile and pressed pause on Gilmore Girls once again.

I just couldn't believe she was dead. Like, of course we all knew that she would end up dying one day soon with whatever she was suffering from, but that still didn't seem to have prepared me for when it actually happened.

How was my Grandfather doing? He must be an absolute wreck over it, considering he and my Grandmother had been happily married for so many years. I could imagine what it would be like to lose someone so close to you. The closest person in my own life to the relationship that my Grandparents shared would probably be my parents or Jack, and if I lost either of those, I know that life would be so different that even the thought of it makes me really uncomfortable.

I stared aimlessly at one of my bedroom walls for what seemed like hours until the sound of my phone ring tone blaring made me jump and yanked me out of the fantasy world I had been in.

It was Lara. "Did it work?" I asked, though I was fairly sure that the answer would be that it didn't, hence the call.

"Since he's not Emma or I's official guardian, they said that they couldn't tell Ben," Lara answered, sounding weary and frustrated at the same time. I don't blame her. "So I'm sorry to bother you guys, but Monica is our best bet."

"Okay," I said, swallowing the lump that had started to form in my throat. "I'll go get her, and then call you back so she can talk to you via my phone."

"Thank you so much again," Lara said.

"It's no problem, seriously," I said, as I said bye and then hung up.

Despite knowing that I needed to get up and find Mom, everything in me seemed resistant to the idea. I knew that Mom had enough on her mind, and that this would almost definitely push her off the edge. I forced my legs off the bed and stood up. I walked to the bedroom door, closing it behind me and then continuing walking down the stairs.

Mom and Dad were most likely to still be downstairs as it was only 10.45pm, and they tended to go to bed much later than Jack and I usually did, or certainly as much as we let them be aware of.

As I had guessed, they were huddled up together in front of the TV in the living room.

"Oh hey, Erica," Dad said, as he noticed me when I walked into the living room. "What brings you here?" he asked, cheerfully.

"I need Mom," I answered, as Dad shot Mom a bewildered looked, but seemed to think nothing more of it, as Mom stood up and brushed some imaginary dust off her clothes.

We walked out of the room, leaving Dad to continue watching the TV.

"What's up?" Mom asked, turning her face to me, as she continued to walk upstairs as I did.

"It's sort of a long story," I said, hoping that this would give me enough time to sort through how best to word the situation to Mom. "So Aunt Rachel and Uncle Ross were having an argument and Rachel suddenly fainted so Lara called the ambulance and then she stayed home whilst Ross went with Rachel to the hospital, and it's been what's probably like 3 hours by now since Lara's heard anything from either of them, and she's at home with Ben and they can't contact Rachel or Emma and she needs a legal guardian or other close member of the family to be able to find out what's happening from the hospital."

I could see Mom puzzling out what I was saying, and now looked more clued up since I had explained the situation and had alluded to how she fitted in the picture.

"What do you need me to do?" Mom asked, with a voice that I presumed was the tone that she used when she was at work.

"I'm going to call Lara so you can speak to her, and then I'll let you figure out the situation from then on," I said, trusting Mom fully to be able to take control of situation in the way that was needed.

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!


	20. Chapter 20

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!

Chapter 20 – Monica

I sat at the table, feeling like my mind was a ball of cotton wool and I'd been stunned somehow.

"Hey! Mon!"

"Whaa-" I muttered, my taking a while to focus before I realised that it was Chandler who had spoken.

"I was talking to you," Chandler said, sounding a little frustrated but also concerned.

"Oh, right," I said, still feeling a little dazed.

"What's going on? You seem miles away," Chandler said. "Besides, I thought Ross was back with the kids now."

"He is," I said, as everything that had happened rushed back at me like a tidal wave.

"Then what else could be bothering you this much?" Chandler said, still sounding frustrated, but the concern less obvious in his tone, assuming it was even still there.

"Okay," I said, bracing myself for a reason that I wasn't even really sure of myself. "It's just…," I begin saying, feeling myself stutter as I tried to find the right words. "It's just an awful lot to have Rachel dealing with such a life-threatening cancer and Mom being gone and the need to plan the funeral and everything."

"I know, I know," Chandler said, sounding my sympathetic as he moved closer to put his arm around me.

"I just don't know if I can handle it all," I said, feeling a lump start to form in my throat and suddenly having to blink away a few tears that had started threatening to spill over as I spoke.

"You will," Chandler said, in a tone that he clearly hoped would be comforting for me. "And, regardless, I'll be here to go through it all with you."

"Really?" I asked, looking into his eyes hopefully.

"Of course," Chandler replied, his eyes meeting mine, bringing my hands to his chest in his own and gently squeezing them to reassure me.

"Oh god, what time is it?" I asked, suddenly realising that my entire body clock was completely off whack and I didn't like how it made me feel at all.

"10.30pm," Chandler said, not breaking eye contact with me, as he could clearly tell that I was freaking out a little.

"Shit!" I exclaimed, as the realisation that the twins had come home recently and I couldn't remember whether anyone had checked on them recently. "Has anyone been up there to make sure that the twins are still doing okay?"

"Mon, you're spiralling," Chandler said, in a tone that I was more than familiar as one he used when he thought I needed to calm down and wanted to help if he could in any way.

I rolled my eyes, a little frustrated, even though I knew that he was right. There _was_ no reason why they wouldn't be perfectly okay.

I was about to attempt to wriggle out of Chandler's grip to go and check on them when I felt Chandler's grip tighten. "I will go, not you," he said, firmly, confirming my suspicions that he knew that I wanted to go and see them anyway.

"Okay, but yell for me if anything is up," I said, reluctantly, as Chandler walked towards the kitchen door to go upstairs.

"Will do," Chandler says over his shoulder, before he closed the door.

Not wanting to be left sitting here and doing nothing, I walked over to the cafetiere and selected a mug,. I pushed the latte button on the machine and then slid my cup onto the stand.

I had not long sat back down with my mug when Chandler reappeared.

"Everything okay?" I asked.

"Yup, all's good," Chandler replied, sitting down beside me.

I smiled at him in gratitude for going to check as I took a sip of coffee.

A/N: Apologies for this being yet another short chapter, I just literally had no ideas. Nevertheless, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!


	21. Chapter 21

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!

Chapter 21 – Jack

I slammed the front door shut behind me and dumped my rucksack down on the bottom step of the staircase. Kicking my shoes off onto the carpet in front of the shoe rack, I then picked them up and put them there, knowing that Mom would freak out if I didn't.

Dad was putting the car back away in the garage and Erica had already gone upstairs before me. I assumed Mom was in the kitchen or something and so I started walking toward the kitchen door. The door was slightly ajar and I heard music blasting from the sound system we had had installed after Erica and I had begged and begged for it.

I pushed open and saw Mom hunched over the vacuum cleaner, pushing it back and forth against the floor.

I walked over to where she was standing. She must have seen me as I was walking because she looked up and caught my eye, turned off the vacuum cleaner and then started looking for her phone, most likely to switch off the music.

Once silence had resumed in the kitchen, she spoke. "Hey, Jack," she said. "I was just doing some cleaning for you and the others when you got home."

"I can see," I said. "Apart from this, how was your day?" I added, trying to make the usual polite conversation that happened after school.

"Productive but otherwise same old, same old," Mom answered, with a slight dispirited edge to her tone. At first it set off a few alarm bells in my mind, but reminding myself of our situation calmed them a little.

The door opened just as I was about to reply and Dad walked in, swinging the car keys on his index finger.

"How are you, babe?" he asked, coming up behind Mom and wrapping his arms around her shoulders.

"Not too bad," Mom answered, the slightly dispirited edge gone as she clearly didn't want to worry him. "What about you?"

"Boring," Dad said, which made Mom chuckle a little.

The door opened again and Erica walked in, her phone in her hand.

"What have I missed?" she asked, sounding as cheerful as she usually was.

"Not much," Mom answered. "Apart from the fact that everyone's home now."

"I'm kinda hungry," I said, starting to walk over to the fridge.

Luckily there was a tub of brownies in amongst the rest of the food that would be less easily available to eat right now. I took hold of the tub, and started walking towards the kitchen door after I closed the fridge door behind me.

"Jack, don't you want to save your appetite for whatever amazing food your Mom has planned for dinner?" Dad asked, one eyebrow cocked in a questioning manner.

He and Mom exchanged looks as I deliberated whether to hand over the tub or not.

"Yeah, I have a dish of lasangna cooking in the oven," Mom said, as I followed her gaze to the light on the in the oven. Before Mom pointed it out, I hadn't noticed it, and felt a little guilty as I realised how my actions must have come across as to her.

"I'll put it back, then," I said, walking back over to the fridge and putting the brownies back in the space that I found it.

Dad ushered Erica and I both out of the kitchen, presumably so that he and Mom could talk in private. I turned to Erica.

"Do you want to do something together?" I asked her.

"Sure," she answered. "What do you wanna do?"

"Watch Netflix or play a game," I suggested, knowing for sure that Netflix was one of her favourites.

"I'll play a game with you," Erica said. "UNO or Scrabble?"

"UNO," I said, as I knew that out of the two of us, Erica was better at Scrabble and one of the only reasons that she would choose to play it is so she would have a guaranteed win against me.

"I'll go get the pack of card and meet you upstairs," Erica said, as I thundered upstairs to make sure that my bedroom floor would be tidy enough for us to be able to play.

Luckily, I only had a few pieces of clothing that had overflowed from my dirty laundry basket on the floor, and this could be easily sorted by just shoving them back in. I sat cross legged on the floor once I had done that, hoping that I wouldn't have to wait long before Erica came back up.

She came in two minutes later, placing the cards on the carpet between the two of us, as I shoved my phone in my pocket as I had been using it to pass the time.

"Do you want to deal or should I?" Erica asked me, as she opened the box that the cards had come in, dumping them back on the carpet.

I reshuffled them into a pile, and then handed them to Erica for her to deal them out between us.

"I'll go first," I declared, taking my deck and placing the first card I found that would match the pile.

We played two rounds, me winning the first and Erica winning the second.

"I declare a rematch to decide the overall winner!" I exclaimed, not letting Erica off that easily and desperate to settle the battle between us for first place.

"You're on," Erica said, as I handed her the remainder of my deck of cards for her to reshuffle and then deal them out.

In the end, we ended up deciding on doing two rematches, as Erica had one the first and there was no way that I was going to give up just yet without a fight.

We were about to start a third round when we both heard the door swing open.

Dad walked in and started talking. "Dinner is almost ready kids, so start packing up your game and make sure you're ready to start eating soon!" he said, as Erica and I both nodded, to show him that we understood.

After Dad left, I turned to Erica and said, "I think we should call it quits here."

"Yeah, but who's won then?" Erica asked, sounding indignant as I knew that she wasn't going to let it go until we agreed on an answer.

"I'll say you have," I said, knowing that if I had tried to argue that I was the winner, it would have caused an argument that I just didn't have the time and energy for.

"That's good then," Erica said, sounding slightly irritatingly pleased with herself as we both helped each other pack away the cards.

Erica and I both washed our hands in the bathroom and then raced each other downstairs. I ended up getting downstairs first, although I had to lean against the bannister to balance myself since I had almost tripped over whilst landing on the bottom step.

Once I had regained my strength, I followed Erica to the kitchen door.

We entered together, and walked across the kitchen diner towards our respective seats at the table. There was already dishes of food set out on the table, but neither Mom nor Dad had joined us at the table yet.

Mom was still at the stove, apparently sorting the last of the food that would make part of dinner, and Dad was pouring drinks.

He bought each glass over to the table once he had filled them all, and then took up his usual place at the table, opposite Mom at the end.

"I hope you all like it," Mom said, sounding a little nervous, although there was really no need, since I was yet to find a dish of hers that I didn't like.

"I am without doubt that we will," Dad said, voicing my - and most likely Erica's - thoughts.

"Then let's all start!" Mom commanded, as I leaned forward to serve myself some garlic bread.

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!


	22. Chapter 22

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!

Chapter 22 – Erica

"I've missed staying with you so much," I said to Addie, the three of us sitting on Addie's bed whilst we talked.

"I have too," Addie said. "It was like having a big sister, and I don't know, it just gets so lonely with just Chris to talk to."

"Totally get you, as well," Lara added. "Although, Emma's really fucking annoying most of the time!"

I knew that Mom would probably freak out a little if she heard any of us swearing, but I didn't mind because I didn't see what she thought was so bad about it, so I wasn't bothered.

"At least you actually have a sister, though," Addie reasoned.

"I'd have a brother over a sister any day," I said. Addie glared at me, so I added, "Unless they were you, obviously."

Addie looked satisfied with that addition to what I said, even though it was genuinely true, because she is literally like the younger sister I never had.

"All Chris does is play video games, and it's so annoying," she said, rolling her eyes as she spoke.

"Welcome to the life goals of guys," I said. "Literally all they ever want is, like, food and Fortnite."

Lara snorted with laughter, but Addie just looked deeply disappointed with the male species. Same, Addie, I thought, same.

Suddenly I heard the sound of someone's phone receiving a notification, and as I fumbled through my pockets for my own in case it was me, that it was in fact Lara's.

"Who was that?" I asked out of curiosity, trying to move close to Lara to see her phone screen.

"Just a friend," she said, as I noticed her start to blush ever so slightly. Nevertheless, I decided to let it go, and not ask any questions to inquire further despite kinda wanting to.

We were about to settle down and watch Netflix on Lara's iPad that she'd bought with her, when there was a knock at the door.

"Can I come in?" someone asked. I quickly recognised that someone as Mom.

I looked back at the others, who nodded that it was fine, and shuffled off of the bed to open the door for Mom.

She stood in the doorway before I motioned that she could come in, and then moved back to my seat on the bed, ready to hear whatever she had come here to say to us.

"Phoebe just wanted me to let you all know that food is being served up now if you guys want to come down and get something," she said.

We all nodded and thanked her for letting us know, before she then left.

"Should we go get food and then continuing watching this a little later?" I suggested to Lara and Addie, as I myself was pretty hungry and I was pretty sure the other two would be too.

We all walked out of Addie's bedroom together and almost ran into Jack and Chris, who were clearly having some competition to see who could get down the stairs the quickest out of the two of them.

About a minute later, Ben walked over from the direction of Chris's bedroom, stopping when he saw the three of us on the landing.

"I told those guys not to do it," Ben explained, realising quickly the slight damage that Chris and Jack had done. "They never listen," he added, shaking his head as if he had no idea at all how to control them in the slightest and that it actually bothered him quite a bit.

I had to stifle the urge to laugh at the whole incident as I moved out of the way so Ben could go downstairs ahead of us. I then began making my own way downstairs, closely followed by Addie and Lara.

When we reached the kitchen, we were greeted by the sight of Chris and Jack somehow attempting to squirt large bottles of tomato ketchup at each other, whilst Ben looked on, dumbfounded.

"Should I get Phoebe or Monica?" I asked Ben, wondering just how effective getting a parent involved would be.

Ben shrugged, so I started making my way towards the patio door out into the back garden.

"We have a bit of a situation," I explained to Mom, Phoebe and Rachel, who were sitting on three of the deck chairs that had been set out.

Phoebe started getting up, clearly feeling like since it was her house that it would be her responsibility to sort it, when Mom put her hand on Phoebe's leg, stopping her.

"I'll go sort it," she said getting up as she placed her plate of food as almost a seat holder.

When we were both back in the kitchen, I saw Mom's jaw drop as she saw the full extent of the mess that Chris and Jack had made.

It took a moment for them to realise that I had bought Mom in here with me, but when they did they dropped the ketchup bottles they had been holding, and eyed each other nervously as the full extent of the mess they had made dawned on them.

They immediately froze, finger guns pointed at each other, presumably admitting that neither of them knew who had instigated the fight.

"Explain what's happened here, please," Mom said, adopting her no-nonsense tone.

"Well, he started squirting ketchup at me and I had no choice but to try and get him back to block him from getting me as many times," Chris started protesting.

"Hey! You were the one who started it!" Jack yelled back in his own defence.

"I don't care who started or finished it," Mom said, her tone sounding so steely that even I felt a little scared of her at this point. "You both are going to clear up the mess you have made in here before you are allowed to join us, or go get food."

Grumbling, Jack and Chris got to work. I followed Mom back out to the garden after getting myself a plate of food. Ben had offered to oversee the boys' to make sure that they actually got on with the job, and so he was still in the kitchen.

"How's school going?" Rachel asked me, as I was sat in the deck chair that was next to hers.

"Pretty good," I said, as I shoved some pasta salad round my plate with a fork. "Kinda stressful though, as we're still in thick of doing finals."

"Lara's been going through it all too," Rachel said, clearly then understanding the pressures not only through Lara's eyes, but also her own from when she was our age.

"At least we're sort of then able to help each other," I added.

"What about Jack? How's he been taking it?" Rachel asked, seeming genuinely interested to see how we were doing which shouldn't have surprised me as much as it did.

"I haven't seen an awful lot of him thanks to Fortnite," I said, chuckling slightly.

"Boys will be boys," Aunt Rachel said, laughing a little herself.

"How's everything going for you and with treatment and stuff?" I asked, not sure whether I had just made a really bad move and completely misjudged whether she would want to talk about it or not.

"Well, I begin my first round of chemo on Monday," she replied. "So not really looking the most forward to that, but nevertheless it has to be done if I want any chance of being able to see the kids into old age."

I nodded in agreement, fearing that if I tried to speak, I would start getting tearful, and when it started it probably wouldn't stop.

"I'm sure that Ross will be able to hold the fort whilst I'm gone," Rachel added.

"Yeah," I said, nodding in agreement. "Otherwise, I'm sure that Mom and Dad would be more than willing to step in if it was needed."

"True, Erica," Rachel said, sounding as if she had considered the idea of asking them before I bought it up. "I just don't want to burden them with more commitments."

Unsure of the best way to answer this, I just said the standard, "I'm sure you wouldn't be a burden anyways."

"Again, very true," Aunt Rachel said.

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!


	23. Chapter 23

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!

Chapter 23 – Chandler

"I brought you a cup of coffee for you to wake up to," I said to Mon, as I leant across the bed to hand her the mug.

She was sitting on the bed, propped up against the headboard by the two pillows that we sleep with at night. The book that she had been reading when I walked in lay spine-up on the bed next to her, which I moved ever so slightly whilst I got back into bed beside her.

"Thank you so much," she said, as she took a sip of coffee from the mug.

I noticed that even though she looked genuinely grateful for the coffee, there was something definitely bothering her and I was pretty sure that I could figure out exactly what it was.

"You worrying about how Rachel is doing and how Ross is managing to look after the kids?" I asked her, trying to keep my own concern for her out of my tone.

Mon nodded in answer.

"I'm sure they're both doing all right," I said, knowing though of course that there was no way that it could be guaranteed, as I simply didn't have the knowledge on hand to be able to reassure her.

Understandably, Mon looked no more reassured by my comment than either of us felt.

I knew that Mon wouldn't blame me for it, but regardless it still made me feel like a massive prick. I tried to push that thought to the back of my mind and leant against my side of the pillow stack, taking in the soft golden morning glow from the sun peeking through the curtains.

I must have been sitting peacefully for quite a while as the next thing that woke me up was the sound of footsteps that could only be from the twins.

Just as Mon and I were planning on getting up and going to explore the racket, the bedroom door burst open and Erica rushed in.

"Mom! Lara needs a ride to school!" she said, smoothing down a few stray baby hairs out of her face as she spoke.

I looked at Mon, trying to gauge her reaction to this, as I suspected that she was likely to start panicking that something had happened to one of the members of the family over there to warrant someone else to need to help get Lara to school.

"How come?" I asked, taking control of the situation before letting Mon deal with it, as I wanted to make sure that she was okay before offloading any added potential stress onto her.

"Ross is just too overloaded with responsibilities right now to take her, but he's also too worried to let her go by herself," Erica explained.

I looked over at Mon, studying her expression for any signs that she wasn't dealing well with the news for any reason. Confident that she was okay, I let her take over the situation.

"I'll drive the both of you to school later," Mon said. "So go get ready as usual and let Lara know that I will be fine to take her and also let Ross know that he won't have to worry about her as I will be with her to get her and you safely to school."

"Okay, will do," Erica said, leaving the room after she spoke.

Mon turned to me after Erica had left, a hint of slight worry flashing across her expression.

"He's all right," I said, squeezing Mon's hand reassuringly. "They all are."

Mon nodded at me, so I knew that she had heard what I'd said.

"I should probably start getting myself ready," Mon said, pushing the duvet off her and my legs.

She swung her legs over the bed onto her side and then got up. I followed her afterwards, finding myself a fresh shirt, blazer and trousers from the wardrobe and then getting changed into them. I went into the en-suite bathroom as Mon had finished in there and was done quickly.

I left the bathroom and started the trek downstairs to join the twins and Monica, who were presumably downstairs as I hadn't seen any of them upstairs.

As I had predicted, the twins were sat at the kitchen table on their phones whilst Mon cooked pancakes over at the stove.

"Good morning to all three of you," I said, walking over to the stove with the intention of asking Mon if she wanted any help with sorting everything out.

The twins chorused hello, and Mon spoke to me whilst she bought another stack of pancakes to the table.

"Do you need any help with anything?" I asked Mon, fully expecting her to decline the offer as she usually did.

"No, thanks," she said, dropping the pan into the sink and then squirting washing up liquid into it.

"Okay," I said, starting to walk back over to the table to talk with the triplets.

"There's a plate of pancakes left on the table for you, by the way," Mon said, turning her head away from her washing and gesturing towards the table.

"Thank you so much," I said, hugging me before letting me go to the table.

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!


	24. Chapter 24

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!

Chapter 24 – Erica

"Hey! You can sit with us!"

I looked up and saw that the person who had been calling me was Lara and a few of her friends that I wasn't too familiar with. Even though I'd been looking for some time alone during this lunch break, I started making my way through the canteen to where the table stood.

The seat that I ended up taking was between one of Lara's friends and herself. Lara turned to me, a slightly concerned expression on her face, and asked "Are you all right?"

"I guess so," I shrugged, wondering how Lara could still be so upbeat with all that had happened with our families in the past few days and feeling an uneasy hatred towards her for it.

Obviously taking this as a sign that I didn't want to talk about it any further, Lara turned back to talking with her friends, whilst I mainly sat there in a daze, pushing my food around the plate to create the impression that I was actually eating something.

For one of the first times in forever, I was overjoyed when the bell rung signalling the end of lunch break. The next lesson I had, AP English Lit, didn't have Lara in the class with me, so I wouldn't have to worry so much about her probing further into how I was feeling.

At the end of the school day, I made a conscious effort to avoid Lara on my way to find Jack to meet Mom or whoever was coming to pick us up. My heart sunk when I saw Jack standing with Lara, still waiting for whoever was coming, as I realised that clearly Mom's favour to take her this morning had extended to this afternoon.

Dragging my feet across the concrete as I went, I walked over to join the two of them. Lara turned to look at me, and at that moment I was absolute to disintegrate into a pile of whatever would turn me into a puddle on the ground or something else that would mean that I was equally as unable to be noticed.

Jack shot me a look that was somewhere between concern and confusion, to which I responded with a look that I knew he would know would mean that I would tell him later.

Saving the three of us from Jack's unsuccessful attempts at making a conversation between the three of us, Mom's car pulled up beside the sidewalk and we all walked over. Lara took the shotgun seat next to Mom, and Jack and I took the back two. I was relieved that I wouldn't have to sit next to Lara.

The conversation on the way to dropping Lara off at her house mainly consisted of Mom and Lara speaking with each other, occasionally joined by Jack. Nevertheless, I was highly grateful for the opportunity to feel like I was temporarily invisible from everything that was going on.

Mom pulled Jack to the side before she started the car for the journey back inside, and the rest of the journey was spent in an awkward silence between the three of us, with the occasional glance from Mom or Jack at me. I could tell that they were concerned about me, and that had been why Mom had spoken to Jack privately, but they were trying to hide it so I wouldn't feel targeted.

When we finally pulled up outside the house, I opened my car door as soon as Mom turned off the ignition, hoping that there would be a chance for me to make a quick getaway without being left at the mercy of her questioning me to know what was up.

"Erica, can you wait a moment before going in?" Mom said, turning her head to face me. My plan had failed.

Jack got out of the car and went inside, whilst I gathered my stuff so I was ready to go inside when Mom had finished getting her stuff and talking to me.

Once she seemed satisfied that she had everything, I heard her slam the car door shut and walk over to me.

"What's going on?" she asked me, her tone and expression equally as full of concern.

"Nothing," I shrugged, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible so she would decide I was fine and drop the conversation completely.

Who am I kidding? I thought, as one look at Mom confirmed my suspicions that Mom was nowhere near satisfied by response.

"Just know that Dad and I are hear if you decide you want to speak to us about it," Mom added, catching me completely off guard by her response. As much as I was glad for this kind of response, I couldn't help but feel a little guilty about it.

Pushing that thought to be the back of my mind, I walked in through the front door and started taking my shoes off, hoping to be able to make another quick getaway before anyone noticed me.

I was successful this time. I set up Netflix on my MacBook and leaned over and picked up my phone, intending on turning it off. However, I saw I had a text notification from Lara, and clicked on it, hoping that it wouldn't be about anything to do with today. It was, and so I switched my phone off, hoping that she wouldn't mind too much about me not replying.

I got a few hours of peace whilst watching Netflix until I saw the door open. I must have missed whoever it was knocking.

"Here's some pizza from the takeaway we ordered tonight," Dad said, setting down the plate on the end of my bed.

"Thanks," I said, moving the plate up closer to where I was sitting.

Dad left shortly afterwards and I resumed my Netflix binge.

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!


	25. Chapter 25

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!

Chapter 25 – Monica

I had just finished wiping down the dinner table from dinner when I heard the sound of a phone ringtone going off. Looking around the kitchen to see if there was anybody else who would be able to get it, I started walking over to where my phone was on charge, as it was clearly going to have to be me who answered.

"Yes?" I asked, realising that I had answered the call in such a haste that I had forgotten to see who it was.

"It's Emma," the voice on the other end of the call said. I noticed that her tone sounded quite worried, and so I felt a desperate rush of questions flood my mind as I was desperate to get to the bottom of whatever it was bothering her.

"What's up?" I settled on, as I didn't want to really bombard her with all the questions I had at once, especially without knowing the source of her issues.

"It's Dad," she replied, as I felt anger start fog my mind, which I had been trying to keep clear as this would enable me to provide Emma with the best advice and guidance on solutions.

Presumably, Emma had taken my thoughtful silence as a queue to move on with what she was saying. "I know he went to see Mom earlier, but it's a few minutes past 7.30 now and I'm starting to get a little worried," she added, her tone still very much laced with fear.

"Are you with Lara and Ben?" I asked, thinking this was a good place to start before making any more suggestions.

"I think so," Emma answered. "But they're both in their rooms, doing whatever."

"It would be a good idea to go get them and let them know what's up," I said. "I'll wait on the phone for you to go get them, and then the four of us can go from there."

Emma agreed with me it was a good idea and said she would be back in 5, so I sat my phone speaker down on the table, and walked over to the cafetiere to get a cup of coffee whilst I waited for the others to get back.

As much as I tried to push all thoughts on the situation to the back of my head whilst making my coffee, the one that I couldn't quite manage was an unshakeable feeling of resentment towards Ross, and how he clearly still thought that Rachel being ill exempted him from basic responsibilities as a father.

It was absurd that he seemed to think it was okay to leave your son and daughters unsure where you are and worrying two nights in a row. Especially when they've lost their grandmother already and aren't sure whether their Mom will end up with the same fate.

A shiver ran through me as I picked up the now full coffee mug, and moved back to the table, battling an odd lump that had taken up camp in my throat as I swallowed. I didn't want to talk about the possibilities of how this will all end up any more than any of the kids, or adults for that matter.

"Are you still there, Aunt Monica?" I heard Emma ask from my phone speakers as I sat back down at the table.

Positing my phone in front of me so I could see kids and they could see me, I nodded.

"Hey guys," I said, shuffling in my chair for maximum comfort as I looked into the camera.

Ben and Lara said hello in unison, and then Emma moved to sit further in front of the camera, as they had clearly decided that she be in charge of the situation.

"When was the last time that Dad spoke to any of you three?" I asked, realising that this was probably one of the first questions I should've asked, even though now I would be able to ask all three of them, not just Emma.

"This morning," Lara answered, and Ben nodded along with her.

"Not even by text or call?" I pushed, wanting to make sure that every way that he could've contacted them had been covered. "Home phone?" I added, realising that I had forgotten to add that initially to my list.

All three shook their heads, as I continued to sit in front of the camera, now fairly confused at just how cut off from everything that Ross really had made himself and most of all, for what purpose exactly. It was a very Chandler-esque thing to do, I thought with a groan.

"Have any of you guys eaten?" I asked, as my eyes had drifted off to the kitchen clock, which had reminded me to ask probably because of the time.

Again, all three shook their heads. This time, the urge to yell and scream what a shitty father Ross was to them was almost too strong to attempt to quash.

"I'm Postmating you guys something to eat," I announced.

Emma seemed to start to argue with Ben over something that I couldn't quite make out, until the talking ceased and they both turned back to face the camera.

"I'm sure we have something in the fridge," Emma starts to say, as it becomes clear that Ben and Emma must have been fighting over my offer for food.

"I'm sure you do," I say, steadily. "But you guys' are getting this tonight."

All three of them thanked me. "Anything else you need, then just call me," I said, hanging up and switching from the messaging app to Postmates on Safari.

I placed an order for Chinese food, as I figured this was probably going to be healthiest option of takeaways and probably the healthiest food that they'd have eaten since Ross decided to shun all his parental responsibilities after Rachel went to hospital.

It was probably a good thing that Ross was keeping on the DL for the time being, because I know when I get a hand on him after all this, the aftermath is going to be far from pretty.

Satisfied that I had done all I needed to for the time being, I started making my way upstairs to Chandler and I's bedroom, to have a little company whilst I sort this whole thing out. And, inevitably, so he can be the person that I vent to about it.

Chandler's in the bed when I walk in, a magazine laying on his chest. It took him less than I second to realise I was there.

"Hey, babe," he said, sounding happy to see me. "All okay?"

"Yeah," I said, as I got into the bed next to Chandler. "I was just sorting a few things out with the kids at Ross's."

Chandler's expression turned to one that was somewhere inbetween confusion and concern, and I knew what he was going to ask next. "Why? What's the matter?" he asked, as I had predicted.

"Ross hasn't turned up again, that's all, and he refuses to contact any of the three kids to let them know where he is," I said, trying and failing to keep the annoyance at my brother's stupid behaviour out of my voice.

I saw a flash of anger across Chandler's expression. "I know Rachel's ill and everything, but that's bullshit!" he exclaimed.

"I know, right!" I said, knowing that I could've trusted Chandler to react to the news in a similar way to me.

"I've sent them some food via Postmates and said that they could call me if they needed anything else," I said, checking my phone out of habit for any updates.

Chandler looked more reassured by knowing that I had it under control, but I could tell that he was still reeling as much as I was over the fact that Ross seemed to think that he was now exempt from taking any kind of parental responsibility.

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!


	26. Chapter 26

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!

Chapter 26 – Monica

{A/N: I thought it would be my responsibility as the author here to say that although I'm unsure whether the content of this chapter would fit better under a trigger warning of just grief related behaviour or mental health issues, it seem the best decision to put a trigger warning for both so if you are uncomfortable reading either, I suggest that you either leave this book now or read ahead if you feel that's best for you but please take caution either way.}

I glanced over at the alarm clock on my side of the bed, and saw that it was still pretty early in the morning. I hadn't been able to sleep all evening, with having to check on Ross's kids and make sure that things were going well with Carol and then when I finally did want to settle down, it seemed impossible no matter how hard I tried.

Instead, I'd laid in bed, replaying everything that had happened in the last few weeks and wishing that I could've somehow changed the course of events so nothing bad had happened to Rachel or Mom. Thoughts like this only seemed to cloud my mind when I had nothing else to do, but for some reason the sinking feeling and the numbness that came along with them never left.

Rolling back over to see Chandler still fast asleep, I decided that I had had enough of just sitting here in bed, doing nothing but feel sorry for myself. Even though it was half past six in the morning, I figured that getting ready for the day a couple of hours early couldn't hurt, and it would also give me something to pass the time.

Getting out of bed carefully so that I wouldn't wake Chandler, I grabbed my dressing gown off of the dressing table that I had left it on, and crept over to the en-suite bathroom. Deciding that it was probably taking too much of a risk to use it, I crept out of our room and started making my way to the family bathroom.

Turning the shower on and undressing, I got in and my eyes darted over to the collection of bottles of shampoo and conditioner. I decided that it wouldn't matter which ones I used, and if it did, I could apologise when it was needed.

I tried to follow my routine as much as I could, probably spurred on by the fact that productivity would make me feel better. After mistaking the conditioner for shampoo twice, I dropped the bottle in the bathroom sink and felt a wave of relief hit me as I stood, stopped trying and faced the bathroom tiles on the wall in front of me.

Mom shouldn't have died and Rachel shouldn't be dying - it should be me.

Already weighed down by the impossibility of figuring out how to live without Mom, and the bitter taste of yearning for all the wasted time that I could've tried to reconcile everything between us, trying to figure out how to live without Rachel was too much.

Far, far, far too much.

The carousel never stops turning, they say. I, however, am yet to live to see this phenomenon.

I jumped when I heard a knock on the bathroom door.

"Mom? Are you in there? Or Jack?" I heard Erica yell.

Hastily grabbing a towel as I went, I turned off the shower and went to open the door, once certain that I was as appropriately dressed as I could be in the given moment.

Though I wasn't awfully sure why, Erica seemed to be eyeing me with concern when she saw me. "What's the time?" I asked her, hoping that not only would small talk perhaps lighten the atmosphere but also because I had realised that I had no idea what the time was myself and it would obviously be good to know.

"7.34," Erica said, the concern that had initially shocked me leaving neither her tone nor her expression. "Why do you ask?" she added, as I tried to hide the fact that she had just caught me off guard.

"Wouldn't want to be late for work," I said, with a satisfied smile, attempting to replicate the usual joy that I got from being organized in my tone and expression.

Another wave of relief hit me as Erica seemed to buy it, and so I made my way back to the bedroom, walking past Erica on her way further into the bathroom as I left.

It was difficult to tell from the low light in our bedroom as to whether Chandler was awake or not, so I took advantage of this and headed straight into the en-suite after choosing my clothes to wear for the day. As I stared into the mirror, I was almost shocked by normal I looked, but greatly relieved as this was the power of dressing up, I guess.

Adding a touch of make-up to the look, I left the bathroom after dragging a brush through my hair and settling on a messy topknot.

Walking back out of the en-suite, I jumped when I heard Chandler's voice.

"Are you okay?" he asked, concern laced through his voice, which sent me into a tailspin as I tried to puzzle out how the hell I would answer him.

In the end, I went with the standard, "Yeah," as I was all out of creative answers. Again, Chandler seemed to readily buy it. Maybe I don't have to try so hard to lie, after all.

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!

Side note: I also feel like this chapter was massively going out of my comfort zone, and so I would appreciate all honest comments, and whether you think this chapter was a genuine success for what I did end up writing.


	27. Chapter 27

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement and mental health issues will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!

Chapter 27 – Jack

"Jack! Get up! It's like midday already!"

I rolled over in my bed, desperate for five minutes more rest and relief from whoever was yelling my name as I was certain that it was a Saturday, which meant that I had no reason to be up early.

Just as I thought I might actually have a shot at managing to fall back asleep, I felt the covers start to be pulled off of me, as if whoever was pulling them wanted to pull them so hard that I would end up falling off the bed and onto the floor.

"Fuck off," I muttered, really not feeling this rude disruption to my morning.

"It's Erica," the voice answered, no sign of respect for how I was feeling in her tone at all.

"Get out of my fucking room, then," I muttered again, just desperate for to get a move on and leave.

Clear that I was going to make no progress by continuing to try and fall asleep, I sat up in bed and waited for a couple of seconds for my eyes to adjust to the light in my room before trying to do anything else, as I was hardly going to be able to defend myself in any way if I all I could see was blurry blobs.

"Well, good morning to you," Erica said joyfully, clearly still taking her chances to bug me.

"Good morning to you too," I replied, not having any time or energy to make a snarky comment back. I was also sure that it would be a waste of my time regardless of how I was feeling.

"Mom and Dad are downstairs in the kitchen if you wanna go get food," Erica said, finally walking to my bedroom door and letting herself out.

I got dressed quickly and used the bathroom, figuring that Mom and Dad would appreciate the attempts to neaten up and future me would as well, and then started making my way downstairs, realising just how hungry I was as I walked.

Pushing open the kitchen door, I saw that Erica had been right about Mom and Dad being in there.

"Morning, Jack," Dad said, over his usual cup of coffee.

"Hey Dad," I said, as I walked over to the toaster and started making myself a couple of pieces of toast. When that was done and I had poured myself a glass of orange juice, I sat down at the table with Mom and Dad.

As I sat and ate, I noticed Dad was the one who was mainly speaking, not Mom, which put me a little on edge as it was usually the opposite way round. The more I looked at Mom, the more I started to realise how she looked like more of a shadow of herself, as there was clear dark bags under her eyes. We all knew that she was stressed over the recent events, but I really wished there was something more that could be done, as clearly it was taking a serious toll on her, and I really did care for my Mom, even if it hasn't always been reflected in my behaviour.

Just as I was finishing up my breakfast, Mom stood up and announced that she was going upstairs to do some housework. Even though she clearly looked tired, Dad didn't say anything and so I assumed if it was a problem, he would bring it up with her later and it probably wasn't my place to point such things out.

Nevertheless, once she had left, just sitting there with Dad made it hard to resist the urge not to talk about it.

I decided to go ahead, saying, "Mom seems really drained this morning. Has she said anything to you about it?"

Dad looked a shocked at such a question, as if this was completely new to him. "No, but I'm sure she's fine," he answered a few seconds later, clearly wanting to keep my worries at bay about it, but not sounding convinced by it himself.

Just as I was about to say something more on the matter, I noticed Dad's expression change from one of clear confusion to one of realisation. Clearly there had been something he had remembered, but I suspected based on his answer just a little while ago, that he wouldn't be sharing it with me.

Pushing aside my reservations, I tried hard to accept that whatever had happened was most likely going to be looked after by Dad, and therefore nothing I needed to trouble myself over.

"What are we doing today?" I asked Dad, changing the topic, as I thought it would be best for the both of us.

"I think there was a few places to go on Mom's mind, but I'll have to speak to her more before we know what's actually going on," Dad answered.

I nodded, in acknowledgement that I had fully understood, though it confused me again that Mom hadn't made up her mind yet, as we all knew how important planning was for her and it made little sense that she wouldn't. Nevertheless, it was probably again down to the fact that she has had other things on her mind, and so I brushed it to the side.

The handset went off, and so I stood up immediately to go and get it, even though I was a little surprised since most of the time anyone wanting to speak to Mom and Dad or Erica and I would use our cell numbers instead.

"This is Jack Geller-Bing, who's speaking?" I said, realising I hadn't stopped to see the caller ID before picking up the call.

"It's Carol Willick," the reply was, and I had to shoot dad a look, as I wasn't 100% sure who that was.

Dad mouthed that she was related to Aunt Rachel and Uncle Ross, which reassured me.

"What's up?" I asked, realising afterwards that it could come across as a little more brash than how I wanted it to.

"Are your parents there?" she asked. I looked over at Dad, who nodded, and so I said that they were and that I was handing her over to him.

Though I couldn't hear anything really of what was being said apart from on Dad's side, I could tell from his expression that it was without a doubt positive. What good timing, I thought to myself happily. The call lasted a few minutes longer, and then Dad hung up and turned to me, clearly wanting to share whatever news he had just heard.

"That was Carol offering us to join her, Ross and the kids in a day out with them," Dad explained.

"We've gotta go!" I said, not even needing to think twice about how I felt towards the proposition.

"I knew Erica would already be thrilled by the idea, so of course I said yes but that of course I'd have to clear it with Mom to know for definite," Dad added, clearly happy that I was as on board with the idea as he was.

"I'll go tell Erica," I said, already starting to walk over to the kitchen door to go upstairs.

Dad followed me, saying that he would use this opportunity to go ask Mom to make sure that the plan could happen.

The door to Erica's room was slightly ajar, and so I didn't bother knocking, feeling as if it just wasn't necessary.

"What's up?" she asked, as I stepped further into the room, from her bed where she was sitting with her MacBook.

"Dad wanted me to let you know we're seeing Lara and the squad today, so I'd start getting ready to go soon if I were you," I said, watching as Erica's face lit up when she realised how much time she would have available with Lara if she went with us.

"Awesome!" Erica said, immediately getting up from her bed and walking over to the closet, presumably to start choosing what to wear for the day.

I decided this would be a good time to leave, and so I started making way back to my own room. I figured Dad would come and let us know if for some reason the plans weren't going ahead, so I didn't bother going to his and Mom's bedroom on my way.

Getting ready to go out myself didn't take long at all, so I was done in less than 20 minutes. I used this extra time to play Fortnite, assuming again that someone would come and tell me when we needed to get going and that I was free to do whatever I wanted for the time being.

As I had expected, I heard a knock on my door not too long later since I'd started gaming, and walked over to the open it, pausing the game with the remote controller on my way.

It was Dad, and it was just to say that I should switch off whatever I was doing and come downstairs so I was ready to leave straight away.

He left, presumably to go and tell Erica to do the same, and so I switched off the Xbox and the TV and grabbed my jacket off the back of the bedroom door on my way out onto the landing.

I was the first one waiting at the door, but I didn't have to wait long, as Mom came down the stairs and started putting her boots on and doing up her jacket ready to go out. I was relieved to see that she looked less tired than she had done in the morning, and hoped that whatever was going on was only going to get better for her from then on.

"Are you excited to be seeing the others?" Mom asked, catching me off guard a little, as I'd been daydreaming and clearly not realised.

"Yeah," I said. "What about you, seeing Ross and all?" I added, then regretting it as I was unsure if somehow I'd gone too far or whether I was just being overly anxious.

"Yeah, it's going to be nice," Mom answered, in a tone that appeared so jolly that you would've had to really know her as a person to notice the slight edge to what she was saying.

Even though at this point, it seemed almost impossible to try and push another of my worries about her to the side, I still struggled and managed to in the end. "It really will," I said, deciding that simply agreeing with her would be the best way to approach the rest of the conversation.

There was a temporary awkward silence, as neither of us seemed quite sure what to say next, until Dad came downstairs, in passionate conversation with Erica as they walked.

"Let's get ready to rumble," Dad said, in his usual happy, comedic tone, as both Erica and I struggled hold in laughter at how embarrassingly Dad-like he was being. There was even a shadow of a smile on Mom's face, I saw, though certain this was spotted only by myself.

Neither Erica nor I decided to fight each other for the shotgun seat, deciding that it was just easier to let Mom sit there, and have us resigned to the back seats.

The journey was pretty boring, as usual, though I noticed that Mom's posture seemed to stiffen a little the closer we got to where we were meeting the others. Apart from the obvious explanation of it being to do with Rachel's obvious absence from the day out, I couldn't think of any reasons why she'd be feeling like that, but it wasn't my place to speculate and so I let it go.

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement and mental health issues will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!


	28. Chapter 28

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement and mental health issues will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!

Chapter 28 – Chandler

{A/N: I think I'm going to take a hiatus from the Phoebe and Mike book for a while, because I have so many ideas for this book that I just need to focus my attention on the other two. Hope you will all understand.}

"Babe, what's up?" I asked, holding Mon's hands tightly whilst also trying to not to draw attention to us, despite the fact that I had been able to find a fairly secluded area to talk to her in.

Instead of a reply, Mon fell into me, shaking more violently with each sob. Unsure whether she was simply crying or experiencing some kind of anxiety attack, I tried my best to soothe her as much as I could. This was proving much harder than I had anticipated, thanks to the burning anger I was feeling towards Ross – as I was certain he had played a massive role in the reason behind this situation – and my own anxiety at the thought of seeing Mon so inconsolable and being unsure whether I would be enough to help her.

I decided the best course of action was to keep on attempting to soothe her, and ideally get her to a place where she would feel comfortable explaining to me a bit more about how she was feeling, and exactly what had caused her outburst.

It ended up being what felt like a good half hour at least, but finally Mon managed to calm down enough to explain what had happened. Feeling like Mon would appreciate the privacy, I suggested that we go back to the parking lot and sit in the car whilst we spoke, which she gratefully agreed with and so we made our way there, hoping that none of the kids would then come looking for us if they were worried about our sudden absence.

When we were sitting comfortably in the car, I passed a water bottle that I'd found, which Mon said was actually hers but she had forgotten to bring it in with her earlier.

"So tell me what happened between you and Ross," I said, watching Mon seem a lot more relaxed and happier now.

"Well, he was pissed at me for calling his ex and son's mother so that his own kids – that he hadn't been doing a very good job at caring for himself anyways – wouldn't have to risk ending up being taken into care for persistent neglect," Mon said, and I didn't even need to read her body language to know the full extent of just how furious she was at the whole situation. "Yet, he still seems to think he can mess around with me by calling me an interfering control freak and even compare me to my own goddamn mother for having more concern for his kids than he has had for days."

"It's fucking ridiculous," I agreed. Who in hell thinks that it is a good idea to compare your own sister to the mother that has endlessly criticised and almost completely dismissed your whole life just for the sake of a fundamentally pointless argument?

Even as I sat in the car with Mon in silence, I could feel the mutual anger at Ross radiating around us.

"Do you want me to go talk to him?" I asked, even though I myself was unsure whether this would be a good idea, since I had a feeling all that would come out of a conversation between him and I right now would be anger, and therefore it was unlikely to solve any of the real issues here.

"No," Mon answered firmly, as if she had read my mind. Either that or she had noticed the fact that I was still pretty tense from the anger.

"Are you doing okay in general?" I asked her, remembering the conversation that I had had from Jack earlier and the thing's I'd noticed myself.

"Yeah," Mon said, shrugging as if it was nothing.

It was nowhere near nothing, especially with what literally just had happened, but nevertheless I decided that I wouldn't get any further in trying to get to the bottom of what seemed to be bothering her if I kept on asking, and I tried my hardest to reassure myself that whatever was going on would pass soon enough and it would be nothing for me to worry about.

The both of us decided after a little while that the best thing for us to do was to go back into the trampoline park, and join the others. By now, it was roughly lunch time, and so the fact that we were ready to go now was perfect timing.

By now, the kids had joined the adults back at the tables for food, and it seemed that they were in the middle of placing orders for lunch. Mon and I sat back down in the seats that we'd been sat at before we left.

"Hey Dad," Jack said, surprising me a little as clearly it hadn't quite registered with me yet that he was now in the seat next to me.

"Hey," I said, taking the menu that he was handing to me. "What are you getting for food?"

"Probably just pasta or something," he replied.

"Have you been waiting here long?" I asked, as I noticed that Jack seemed to be looking Mon's way, his brow furrowed.

"Not really," he answered, still not taking his eyes of Mon.

"Mom was a little stressed out earlier," I said, feeling that Jack deserved some kind of explanation of what happened. "But she's okay now."

Jack seemed reassured by this, although it made me feel a little guilty, since I knew that she was really far from okay still.

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement and mental health issues will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!


	29. Chapter 29

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement and mental health issues will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!

Chapter 29 – Monica

{A/N: There are two things that I'd like to explain here – 1) Unless I say otherwise, the Phoebe and Mike story is discontinued and 2) With the remaining two books, you can expect them to be far longer than I originally thought. Thanks for reading this.}

"I'm home!" I heard Chandler shout as he walked into the kitchen.

I dropped the washing up glove that I was holding and walked over to hug Chandler.

"How are you?" he asked me, looking directly into my eyes as we hugged.

"Not doing too bad," I said.

"That's good to hear," Chandler said. "So I take it that you'll be up for it if I told you that I had reserved a seat to go out for dinner tonight."

I nodded, feeling so happy at the suggestion after being away from Chandler all day.

"I got to go upstairs and get ready then," I said to Chandler, deciding that it was fine to leave the washing up glove where I had left it.

When I got upstairs, I looked through my wardrobe, remembering about a dress that I had been wanting a reason to wear for quite some time. I decided that I was definitely going to go for it, and changed quickly into it. Afterwards, I walked over to dressing table I shared with Chandler and started looking through my jewellery box for something to wear for the night.

I found the earrings that I had worn at Chandler and I's wedding, and was about to shut the box and take my current earrings out to wear them instead, when a single earring caught my eye. After a moment of wondering why there was only one and not a pair of them, I remembered that it was from when I had got the top of my right ear pierced on a whim as I'd been kinda bored once when I hadn't been needed at work.

After it had healed, I realised that I hadn't worn it in so long that I didn't even know whether I would need to get it pierced again to be able to wear it now. Of course, the best way to know would be to try and wear it again, so I did. Luckily, the piercing hadn't completely healed over as I was able to get the earring through the hole without it being too painful.

As I looked at in the mirror, I was reminded why I thought it would suit me and then remembered that no one knew about it, and so if I wanted to wear it I would have some explaining to do. When I'd first got it done and throughout the healing process, I had been able to successfully hide the piercing with my hair, but there was no point in getting it done if I wasn't going to actually wear it. I put in the other earrings from Chandler and I's wedding and then styled my hair in a bun to finally show off the piercing and because it was pretty much the only way that I thought my hair looked good up, rather than down as I usually had it.

I grabbed my bag and walked out of the bedroom, confident that I was fully ready to go. I had just finished putting both of my boots on when Chandler walked downstairs, clearly having freshened up since he'd got home.

I leaned in to kiss him, and he kissed me back for a couple of seconds before his hand moved up to my ear. I saw him move a strand of my hair from my face, presumably to see my ear better, so I knew that he must have noticed the piercing.

"When did you get that?" he asked, and I knew that I'd been right to assume he was talking about the earring.

"A while ago, when work didn't need me and I didn't know what to do with my time," I explained. "I mean, I had always wanted to get the top of my ear pierced, I just never had the time to actually get it done."

"It really suits you," Chandler said, smiling softly at me.

"Thanks," I said, blushing ever so slightly. "Mom would've hated it."

"Why?" he asked, sounding baffled.

"She always hated things that she thought were even the tiniest bit edgy," I answered, realising as I said it how ridiculous it sounded, especially since it was basically the next most conventional piercing after the standard one in each ear.

"I think it's more artsy than edgy," Chandler said. "It looks so good on you," he added, as I beamed.

"I should've worn it sooner and not hid the piercing so much," I said, thinking out loud.

"How long have you had it then?" Chandler asked.

"About 3 months," I answered. "I guess the reason I hid it is because I guess I wasn't sure whether people would think the piercing was too edgy for me and didn't suit me, or just generally hate it for some reason."

"You hid it so well," Chandler said. "Though you really didn't have to hide it from me, because it's perfect on you."

"It's just about the only benefit of having such thick hair," I said, as Chandler and I both chuckled.

"Oh, and you're wearing the earrings I got for you as my wedding gift as well!" Chandler exclaimed.

I beamed even more, as Chandler's reaction to both the wedding earrings and the piercing had gone better than I had hoped.

"Let's get going, then," Chandler said, unlocking the door and walking to the car as I followed.

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement and mental health issues will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!


	30. Chapter 30

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement and mental health issues will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!

Chapter 30 – Chandler

"Hey, Mon," I called from the hallway. "Do you want me to put the oven on so you can start dinner?"

I went into the kitchen anyway, assuming that Mon would come in and stop me if she didn't want me to do that.

I had just about managed to get the oven working as Mon crashed through the door.

"What the hell are you doing?" she yelled.

"Helping you with starting dinner," I said, trying to hide my surprise at such a sudden response and outburst from her.

"I don't need your help," Mon said, bitterly, clearly not taking my attempt at helping her with any gratitude at all.

"Oh, because suddenly you're not all sad and melancholy and everything's raining puppies and kittens," I said, matching Mon's bitter tone.

Mon's face turned stony. "Are you actually kidding me?" she spat.

"Not one motherfucking bit," I said, struggling not to laugh at how pathetic I felt this whole thing this was.

"I'm fine and I can do everything without needing help," Mon said, putting emphasis on the word 'without.'

"So you're just going to act like that huge fight with Ross didn't happen and that mental breakdown you had was a fucking headache?" I said, fuming at how delusional Mon was being. "And all those days where I basically felt like I was living with a zombie and the kids did too?"

"That was days ago," Mon says. "I'm good now."

"You do know that one piercing doesn't mean you're miraculously cured from all your problems, right?" I said, not being able to believe just how ridiculous this sounded but yet that I was still forced to be part of it.

"It proves I'm looking after myself, though," Mon said, proudly. "I'm making an effort."

"And looks can be deceiving," I pointed out.

Monica's lip curled in anger as the weight of what I said sunk in.

"Well, the alternative is succumbing to the living hell that's been my life since Mom died and I found out that Rachel was going to die," she said, her voice surprisingly steady for someone whose eyes were filling and overflowing with tears. "Is that what you would rather?"

"What kind of dumb question is that?" I asked, laughing uncontrollably.

"That 'dumb question' is the current of reality of _my_ life," Mon said. "So, what are you going do about it?"

"You tell me, Monica E Geller, you tell me," I said, beyond fed up of this conversation.

"I'm going to find someone who can, then," Monica said, running down the corridor and slamming the front door behind her.

I stood facing the closed front door, unable to believe that Mon would just walk out like that and be as dead serious about her decision. When we married, we promised to be there for each other through everything, and the fact that she might've just thrown the whole thing away made me feel nauseous to the point where I had to sit down to not faint and injure myself that way.

Sometime much later, I heard the door open and then slam shut.

"Mom! Dad! We're home!" I heard Erica yell, as she and her brother crashed into the kitchen.

"W-Where's Mom?" Erica stuttered, eyebrows furrowed in concern as she skidded to a halt against the kitchen countertop.

Jack assumed the same look as it dawned on him also that Mom wasn't here.

"She had some stuff to do," I lied, not only unable to admit to myself the reality of what happened, but thinking that this would be the worst possible time to break the news to them.

"I'm calling Mom," Erica announced, starting to sound much younger and more vulnerable as she spoke, which made me feel almost 10x worse for lying to her in the first place. Though, to be honest, I wasn't sure how much more she would like the reality.

Erica left the room, as Jack seemed to be in the middle of deciding to stay here with me or go upstairs with Erica. In the end, he chose to go upstairs with Erica, as I probably would've done if I was in his shoes.

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement and mental health issues will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!


	31. Chapter 31

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement and mental health issues will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!

Chapter 31 – Monica

"Thank you so much again for everything," I said to Phoebe, blinking every few seconds to attempt to successfully hold back the tears that were threatening to fall as I spoke.

"Mon, it's the least Mike and I can do for you, given everything that's happened," Phoebe replied.

"I'm just fed up of pretending that I'm not completely falling apart," I said, feeling the tears start to spill and giving up on trying any harder to stop them from flowing.

"You don't have to, we're all here for you," Phoebe said, bringing me into a tight hug.

"I just don't want to have to admit to Chandler that he's right that life sucks absolute balls right now and I'm still pretty certain I'm fucking depressed," I said, between sobs that were so huge I felt like I was being punched in the stomach over and over again.

I let myself go, falling limp into Phoebe's arms, shaking so furiously that I hoped that Phoebe wouldn't think I was having some kind of heart attack, though she may have a point if she did assume so.

I don't know how long I was crying in Phoebe's arms for, but when I finally felt like there were no more left to come and that I had gotten out all the stress I had been feeling for the moment, I thanked her again for looking after me despite being such a mess.

"I forbid you to apologise for things you have no control over," Phoebe said, her tone reminding myself of scarily of myself.

I laughed weakly.

"Did you get any of the pizza that Mike ordered in for us?" Phoebe asked me.

"I don't think so," I answered, as Phoebe left the guest bedroom that she had set me up in to go and get the boxes.

I went into the en-suite in the guest room, and looked in the mirror. My hair was a mess from everything that had happened as I had kept it down all day as I hadn't thought there was any reason to put it up, but now I decided to take the scrunchie that I realised had been on my wrist all this time without me knowing and attempt to clear my hair up a bit by putting it in a ponytail. Just as I was happy that I'd caught all the stray hairs in a reasonably presentable fashion, I felt a sharp but painful tug out of nowhere.

Turning my head to the right side in front of the mirror, I managed to figure out that the issue was a strand of hair caught around the silver ring of my piercing. Luckily, I was able to tug the hair free without causing any damage to my ear, though it still stressed me out as I hadn't had trouble with this with the stud that they originally pierced my ear with and so it was still pretty unexpected. I then attempted to put my hair up again, thankfully this time pain-free.

Phoebe came back into the room with a pizza box for me as she promised, and then left me to be alone to eat, after making sure that there wasn't anything else I needed. I took out the MacBook from the bag that I had managed to hastily put together on my way out of the house, and set it up on the bed for me to watch Netflix whilst I ate.

The home screen on my phone flashed again and I saw that it was a message from Erica. Both of the twins had been sending me messages and calling, but I didn't want to respond because I had no idea how the fuck I would end up explaining this whole situation to them, and I didn't want to risk having to speak to Chandler again as I was still beyond angry with him.

After watching a few hours of TV on Netflix, I picked up the pizza box and walked out of the bedroom, going downstairs to find the kitchen so I could bin the box. Just as I was about to throw the box in the bin, I saw Phoebe turn round from where she had been cleaning at the sink.

"Everything still okay?" she asked me, to which I nodded that it was.

"See you in the morning, then," I said, as I started to make my way back upstairs to the room I was staying in.

When I was back in my room, I plugged the charger to my phone and laptop into the wall, and connected them to it, leaving them resting on top of the dresser. I then grabbed the clothes I'd bought to wear for bed and went into the bathroom to get ready to go to bed, as I was barely able to walk without feeling like I was dragging lead weights around because I was so exhausted.

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement and mental health issues will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!


	32. Chapter 32

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement and mental health issues will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!

Chapter 32 – Erica

"I'll get the door!" I yelled to Jack, as I ran down the stairs as fast I could without tripping up.

I twisted the doorknob as the door clicked open, revealing Carol who was the visitor. My relief at seeing her standing there must have shown on her face, because her facial expression looked somewhere between grave sadness clearly at our situation and happiness that she was clearly being so heartily welcomed.

"Come on in," I said to Carol, although I knew that I didn't really need to. "Could I get you anything to drink?"

"Thank you for the offer," Carol said, as she followed me down the hallway and into the kitchen, which I thought would be the best place for us to sit, considering Dad was goodness knows where and Jack was upstairs, playing on his gaming consoles as usual.

There was a couple of minutes of awkward silence between the two of us, as we both knew why she was h ere but didn't seem to know where the hell to start. In the end, I jumped the gun and just went ahead with what I wanted to say, figuring if I continued to overthink it, I would never get anything out which wouldn't be conducive to the situation in any way.

"I'm sure you're wondering where Jack is," I said. "He's upstairs, because I think he feels like I'll be a better person out of the two of us to take control of sorting the situation out."

"That's understandable," Carol said, nodding. "It may even be his way of coping with such a difficult, difficult situation that no one, least of all yourselves, should be put into."

I just simply nodded in agreement, as I felt like Carol had said everything that I'd been thinking.

"So, is there any pressing things that I can do for you two and Dad to make things even a tiny bit easier?" Carol asked me, her tone making it clear that she wanted more than anything to be able to help us, even if it was just in a tiny way.

"I mean, all we've been eating for the last week has been takeaways and pasta, so I doubt either Jack or I wouldn't be opposed to getting hold of some more substantial food," I replied, trying to add a touch of humour to my voice, simply to lighten the mood a little because I felt it was still pretty clear that my heart just wasn't in it to really succeed at being funny at this point in time.

"I'll take care of that for sure," Carol said, typing into her phone as I stood up from the seat I'd been sitting at, and tried to hunt around the kitchen for any spare change that I could give Carol to go towards the cost of the food she was going to go shopping for.

A search for money proved unsuccessful, so I just hoped that Carol wouldn't mind too much and do it as a favour for us anyway.

"If we ignore all the extra stuff that you've had to worry about, how are you yourself doing?" Carol asked me.

CI heaved sigh before answering, because in all truthfulness with everything going on, I hadn't even stopped to think properly how I did actually feel about this, let alone try and come up with an answer right now on the spot.

"I don't think I'm doing too badly," I said, trying to be as honest as I could with myself as far as I knew what I could consider to be truthful.

"Hmm, that really fills me with confidence," Carol said, clearly not believing that I was necessarily being 100% honest. In some ways, that was true.

"There's really no need to worry," I said, although I was feeling pretty guilty as I was being completely hypocritical by pontificating that whilst in reality, I felt like the exact opposite of calm and not anxious.

Carol gave me a look that I knew meant I hadn't really convinced her of anything more, but then she decided to change the topic so she clearly knew that she wasn't going to get an answer out of me that she would want to hear and so it was no good trying to push any further for one.

"Is there anything else that's important for me to know before I head off to do some grocery shopping? Maybe you should think about it whilst I'm gone and then get back to me later," she said, as I nodded in agreement.

"Thank you so much, Carol," I told her as she started to get up from the table to go to the shops. "On behalf of Jack and I, we both really appreciate it."

"Anything I can do for the family," she said, the fact that she had divorced from Uncle Ross and everything to do with that clearly not mattering a damn.

Once Carol had gone, I stayed sat at the table for a while before deciding that not only was I very bored, but that I may as well go see that Jack was okay as, whilst the likelihood of him being okay was high, my big sister anxieties would not be quelled otherwise.

It became more and more apparent the further up the stairs that I got that Jack was playing a pretty loud video game, and so it was already going to be quite hard to get him to switch off the game he was playing so that I could talk to him. Even so, I was willing to try anyway.

Usually I would've knocked on his door, but since there was no chance that Jack would hear me over the noise that he was already surrounded by, I just pushed open the door and took the drastic measure of standing in front of the TV to block him from being able to play any more moves, and so he would be forced to speak to me.

"What do you want?" he asked, tossing aside his controller and looking up at me, sounding less than pleased to see me.

"To tell you that Carol has been here and that she's currently at the grocery store getting us some proper food so we're not just eating junk," I said, trying to sound firm, but keep the slight annoyance that I'd felt because of his reaction outside of my voice.

"Meh," Jack said, shrugging. "I liked that 'junk' anyway. Now, do me a favour and move out of the way so I can play my game!"

With a resounding sigh, I left his room as I'd been asked to and made my way downstairs to sit back at the kitchen table and wait. Maybe I would end up filling the time with catching up the school work that I had missed, I thought as I walked.

I must have done at least an hour of school work by the time I heard the doorbell ring again and got up to go and answer it, correctly assuming that it was Carol coming back with the food that she'd bought us.

"I hope it's all stuff that you and Jack will eat," she said to me, as the two of us helped each other to move the bags of groceries from her car to the kitchen table, and then into the various places where the food is stored.

"Honestly, even if it isn't something that Jack likes, I'll still force it down his throat," I said, without hesitation, and then worrying ever so slightly that Carol might have something to say about how violent my comment sounded.

"You already sound like a mother," Carol said, laughing. "That's a compliment, by the way," she said, sounding anxious that she expected me to interpret it as a negative.

"Oh, don't worry," I said, waving it off. "I have to be strict with Jack otherwise he never listens to me, although not only am I his sister, but I'm also his twin. Mom and Dad have so much more of a hard time with it, though."

"I can imagine," Carol laughed, as she helped rearrange one of the refrigerator shelves so that everything that we wanted to fit on it would have somewhere where they could sit.

"I'm just glad I'm not his Mom, to be honest," I said, mentally trying to imagine what that would be and not being able to come up with anything, because clearly it would be far too painful of an experience.

Once we were both satisfied that everything had been put away appropriately and safely enough, Carol told me that she was planning to get back to the Uncle Ross's, and I told her that she was fine to leave Jack and I here. She reluctantly agreed, and told me to call her if Dad wasn't back before Jack and I went to bed.

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement and mental health issues will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!


	33. Chapter 33

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement and mental health issues will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!

Also side note, a song that I think sums up perfectly what Monica is desperate to say to Chandler in her current state of mind is 'Make This Go On Forever' by Snow Patrol. I recommend giving it a listen either before you read this chapter or during!

Chapter 33 – Chandler

" _and I don't know where to look_

 _my words just break and melt_

 _please just save me from this darkness"_

 _\- Gary Lightbody_

"Have a good day at school," I told Erica as she left the kitchen through the door. "And thank you for the coffee – I really appreciate it!"

"You're welcome, Dad," Erica said, as she closed the kitchen door behind her.

I got up from the table to go and pick up my phone, which had been on charge for the evening, and sat back down at the table after switching off the plug socket. I tapped the home button to see if there was any notifications on my lockscreen and felt my heart leap when I saw that Monica had sent me a text message. Maybe, just maybe, we could already sort out the shit that had gone down last time we saw each other.

My heart dropped right down into my stomach again when I saw that, in fact, all she had sent me was an iMessage link to a song on Spotify apparently called 'Make This Go On Forever' by Snow Patrol. Though I was confused by the lack of context behind this message, I thought there was no harm in listening to it, as knowing Monica, there was probably some kind of hidden message that she wanted me to get from it.

The first line of the song 'Please don't turn this into something it's not' started playing and immediately I found myself rolling my eyes over just how typical it would be of Monica to do this kind of thing and slight amusement over how I was right about her intentions. I had to credit her for how sneaky, albeit manipulative that it was of her to do this.

Nevertheless, by the time the chorus hit, there was a very definite lump in my throat and not long after, I noticed that I'd been subconsciously blinking furiously as if something was in my eye. Once the song had finished, I thought again about how what Monica had done had been so well planned and well thought and it started to seriously anger me because it was so clear as day she wanted to admit she was right and that I was the one who blew our original argument out of proportion. Well yeah, maybe I did take things one step too far, but she didn't have to just fuck off and leave me with _our_ kids over that.

In the end, I just put my phone back on the table and left it there whilst I walked down the corridor from the hallway into the living room. I found Joey and I's old copy of one of the seasons of Baywatch and slotted it into the DVD player on the stand under the TV screen. I grabbed the remote, switched the TV and the DVD player on and then loaded up the film. I sat back, relieved to let Baywatch distract me from the nightmare that my life had become.

Half an hour into the film, I got up from the couch, realising that I'd forgotten to get any kind of drink in my resentment towards Monica's behaviour, and so I went back through the corridor into the kitchen. In the fridge, there was still my stash of beer hidden in the corner, so I selected one can and then shut the fridge door. On my way out of the room, the lit up lockscreen of my phone caught my eye and I thought that I may as well check it, in case it was Ross or the kids or someone. Instead, the notification told me that a number, which I recognised as Phoebe's, had left a voicemail.

Though it was unexpected to have received a call from Phoebe and there was an almost definite chance that Monica set her up to calling as a follow up from the song that I'd received earlier, I decided to give them both the benefit of the doubt and listen to it. Sure enough, it was essentially Phoebe saying that was told by Monica to say that I hope I got her message and if I want to reach out to her, I can, but it's on me to solve this situation now.

It look all the self-restraint that I had in me not to send a voicemail back calling Monica a manipulative, calculating son of a bitch, which was reasonably close to my thoughts about her at this given moment. Instead, I simply put my phone down and left the kitchen with plans to continue watching Baywatch until the twins got back home from school.

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement and mental health issues will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!


	34. Chapter 34

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement and mental health issues will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!

Chapter 34 – Monica

" _Like I said, disappearances happen_

 _Pains go phantom_

 _Blood stops running_

 _and people, people fade away_

 _There's more I have to say_

 _So much more_

 _But I've… disappeared"_

 _~ Meredith Grey_

 _(Copyright to Shonda Rhimes)_

"Has he got back to you yet?" I asked Phoebe, who was sitting at the kitchen table, as I walked across the room to the kettle where I had plans to make myself a cup of coffee.

"No, but I'm sure it's probably because he's waiting for the right time to talk to you personally," Phoebe reassured me, as I managed to successfully cover up my scoff at the chances of that ever happening with a well-timed cough.

"What's the good of us just sitting here and dwelling on it anyway?" I said to Phoebe, though I knew that it was going to be damn near impossible for me to not do that.

"Exactly," Phoebe replied, smiling, completely oblivious to the fact that I had no intention of pushing my thoughts about Chandler to the back of my mind.

We sat at the table for a little longer, Phoebe discussing with me the fact that Joey would soon be coming to stay in New York, and we both started to talk about what plans we would make whilst he was here. I was thinking about how nice it would be have all six of us together for the first time in, what, a decade when Phoebe suddenly spoke.

"What about Rachel? We don't know, with her treatment and everything, how we could make things work so Joey and the rest of us can see her too," Phoebe said, as I nodded along, realising that this would definitely complicate any plans that we did try to make. That, and the fact that with the rifts that have been created between Ross and I's families, doing anything together as the six of us would be pretty damn awkward at this time.

"I'll send her a text later," I said, feeling better about at least being able to sort that out ahead of the rest of our planning.

"Thank you so much, Mon," Phoebe said, giving me a grateful smile as she stood up from her seat at the table and went over to the other side of the kitchen, clearly in search of something.

"It's nothing," I said, smiling back at her as she walked back over to the table, now armed with a notepad and pen, presumably so that we could write down what we already had confirmed about the plans for when Joey's in the city.

Half an hour later, we had written down all the plans that we knew could definitely take place and also written down the things that we could have to confirm at a later date. I had also received a reply from Rachel, which explained that for the holiday period, she had been temporarily discharged, meaning that she would be able to join in with any plans made with Joey.

"Are we just waiting for the kids to get back from school now?" I asked Phoebe as I looked down at my phone lockscreen to see what the time was.

"Yep," Phoebe said. "Though, I would imagine that Mike will be back before then, and then I can send him off to go get the children so they don't have to walk home, which they'd definitely appreciate on any given day."

I chuckled because Phoebe's comment about her twins didn't sound too far off from how Chandler's and I would about a similar situation, despite the four year age gap. Mind you, at 8 years old, I don't think that I would've trusted neither Jack or Erica to walk home by themselves, not because they weren't capable of doing so but just because I would drive myself insane with worry and no one would benefit from that in any way.

Sure enough as Phoebe had predicted, we both heard the front door slam and then Mike's cheery tone as he called out his greetings to us as he walked down the hallway and into the kitchen. Phoebe immediately got up from her seat and started to walk over to the kettle asking, "Babe, do you want a coffee?"

"That'd be wonderful," Mike said in answer as he sat down at the table next to me.

"Phoebe told me you went to see Rachel, right?" I asked Mike, hoping that he would excuse my rudeness for going straight into asking him a question without returning his initial greeting.

"I did," Mike said, fortunately for me with no indication with his tone, body language or facial expression that he'd minded about my slight lack of manners.

"How was she?" I asked, though soon after I felt a pre-emptive sinking feeling in my chest ahead of the answer, as I knew the probability of her health being worse was more likely than it being good.

"I think she's managing all right, all things considered, and she is definitely excited about the fact that she gets to come home over the holiday period," Mike replied, clearly under the assumption that it was likely that I already knew about that.

"How are things with the treatment, then?" I asked, even though I really didn't know whether I actually wanted to hear the answer.

"The doctor said that her cancer has definitely started to spread further, but before proceeding with any treatments they need to have an idea of the rate at which the cancer is spreading and to whereabouts, hence why they wanted to be able to temporarily discharge her so badly," Mike said, his facial expression clearly illustrating the fact that talking about this was making him a little more uneasy than usual.

"Yeah," I agreed, as I knew that giving any more of an answer was going to be almost impossible because of the heavy weight of the news that was bearing down on me.

"It will do wonders for the kids and Ross to be able to see her though," Phoebe said, clearly trying to remind us that there would definitely be members of the family that were more desperate to see her and needed to see her more than others.

"And take slightly less of the pressure that Carol and Ben have been feeling since Rachel left," I added, knowing first hand that things hadn't been quite so easy at the Geller-Greens' since Rachel left for her latest bout of treatment.

"Agreed," Phoebe said. She seemed to stop to think for a minute before adding, "Wait – who will tell them that Rachel's going to go back home for a while soon?"

"I'll message Lara, and get her to keep it a secret from Ross but to tell the others as well, just because it could get a little messy otherwise," I said. "Ross will best appreciate the news if it's kept a complete secret from him," I added a little more firmly, as being his sister, I felt like I had the rights to be a pretty good judge of what Ross would like to happen and what he wouldn't.

"That's all sorted, then," Phoebe said, looking happy as she bought the cup of coffee that she had made for Mike over to the table and then sat back down in her own seat.

A/N: Hey guys, this is just me reminding you guys for the reviews and suggestions for any improvements I could make to keep coming and to read all the chapters leading up to this one and the other books. Please also keep in mind that strong themes of bereavement and mental health issues will feature from now on for quite a while across all three books, and so if you are sensitive towards that topic, I ask you to keep that in mind before continuing to read on with the trilogy. Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you have a good day whenever and wherever you're reading this!


	35. REALLY IMPORTANT UPDATE

**REALLY IMPORTANT UPDATE:**

 **Due to the fact that I recently learned that one of my grandparents has had to battle with cervical cancer in the last 15 months, and has fortunately since recovered, I have decided that I may not be able to or it may simply just be unwise for me to continue with the storyline of Rachel's cancer (she also battles cervical cancer in this fanfiction trilogy). I'm really sorry for this, but I hope you will all understand.**


End file.
